808 



Miscellaneous. 



" The Madi ( Madia sativa) is a plant of the same habit, and allied in 

 botanical characters to the Verbesina. It has lately been grown in Eng- 

 land by one or two experimentalists, in the hope of obtaining an 

 indigenous oil of a superior quality. Professor Lindley, who has grown 

 a portion at the Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick, is of opi- 

 nion that the climate of England is too damp and cold for the Madi ; and 

 on my requesting to be furnished with seed for trial in the dry parts of 

 India, he kindly sent me a liberal supply (which I have brought here 

 overland), and agrees with me in the opinion that it will stand a good 

 chance in the high and dry lands of the Deccan and other similar 

 districts of India. A plant requiring no more care in the cultivation than 

 the black til of the Deccan, and producing an oil second only to that of 

 the almond and olive, and superior to the sesamum, (the common ' sweet 

 oil' of Western India), must prove a valuable addition to the produce of 

 the country, and as such I commit it to the care of the Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Society of Bombay without further recommendation, 

 merely subjoining a notice of what has already been mentioned by 

 authors about this hitherto neglected plant. 



" DeCandolle, in his ' Prodromus,' gives a full description of the plant, 

 and notices shortly that the seed is used for making an oil. This oil, 

 however, does not seem to have attracted the notice of commercial 

 persons, and the only account of it I could procure in London was kind- 

 ly pointed out to me by my friend Professor Don, in a work published 

 in the year 1711, (in the library of the Linnsean Society of London), 

 ' Histoire des Plantes MSdicinales de Perou et de Chili,' by Mons. 

 Feuillee. Of this account the follwing is a translation : — 



" ' An admirable oil is made from the seeds of this plant throughout 

 all Chili. The natives make use of it not only as a local application to 

 assuage pain, anointing with it the parts aifected, but also as a con- 

 diment, and besides for burning in lamps. I found it,' says M. FeuillSe, 

 ' sweeter and of a more agreeable taste than the greater part of our 

 olive oils; its colour is the same. There are no olives in Chili, and 

 whatever olive oil is found there is brought from Peru, where a large 

 quantity is made.' 



" I beg to present the Society with an original coloured drawing of 

 this plant, made for me in August last at Chiswick, by Mr. Hart, 

 lately draughtsman to the Botanical Register. — Charles Lush, M.D." 

 — Bombay Gazette, 26th November, 1840. 



