May 1861. j 



Proceedings. 



181 



Read letter from Captain Grant submitting a proposition for the 

 reduction of the rate of Subscription for members in the Mofussil. 

 The Committee direct Captain Grant to be informed that the sub- 

 ject has on more than one occasion been fully considered, and that 

 it is not deemed expedient to make any alteration in the amount 

 of Subscription payable by Members in the Mofussil, as all the 

 more important advantages afforded by the Society are available 

 for them equally with others, and that the supply of seeds alone, 

 furnished to all Subscribers, is equivalent to more than half the 

 Annual Subscription. 



Read the following letter from Lieut Mitchell : — 



Madras, 4th Feb. 1861. 



To the Rev. J. R. Macfaelane, 



Hony. Secretary Agri- Horticultural Society. 



Deae Sie, — I am making some enquiries about the arrowroot 

 producing plants of Southern India, — of which the form of the 

 starch granule, as exhibited by the microscope, shows there must 

 be several kinds. 



By the kindness of Colonel McCally I have been favoured with 

 some bulbs from which the Cannanore arrowroot is said to be pro- 

 duced. The position of the plant in the Vegetable Kingdom is 

 not stated, but I have reason to believe it is a species of Curcuma. 



My object in troubling you is to request you will do me the 

 favour to have some of the bulbs planted at the Society's Garden 

 where I know they will be carefully looked after, and where the 

 Superintendent, Mr. Brown, or some of the members, having a 

 greater amount of Botanical knowledge than I possess, will be 

 able to give me hereafter the correct name of the plant. 



You will observe that the Cannanore arrowroot is supposed to 

 be all produced from one species of plant, — but if there be, as I 

 believe there is, an invariable* form in the starch of the same 

 species of plant, this certainly cannot be the case, and as it is as- 



* Note.— The granules are not entirely of the same form in the same 

 starch, but there are certain forms which appear to be constant in the 

 species, 



