20b 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE, 



[Calcutta. 



sweet and large grained ; it does not readily separate from the husk, but is 

 preferred by the natives to all others. Some kinds of rice, more particularly 

 the Patna, are of a very superior sort, small grained; the latter is rather long 

 and wiry, but remarkably white, and is the kind most esteemed by Europeans. 



Ma. Dalrymple states, that a small bag of paddy, given as a present 

 from Mr. Dubois, Treasurer of the East India Company, to a Carolina 

 trader, was the origin of rice-cultivation in America. The ton of rice is 

 20 Cwt. 



Roses, Oil op. — This valuable perfume is prepared in India, Persia, 

 and Turkey. The quantity to be obtained from roses being very precarious 

 and uncertain, various ways have been thought of to augment the quantity 

 at the expence of the quality. It is often adulterated with the oil of sandal- 

 wood ; this imposition, however, cannot be concealed ; the essential oil of 

 sandal will not congeal in common cold, and its smell cannot be kept under, 

 but will predominate in spite of every art. They have likewise the art of 

 mixing this oil with spermaceti, more particularly that imported from 

 Turkey. The best mode of discovering this fraud, is by spirits of wine : 

 this will dissolve the oil, and leave the spermaceti in lumps, which, if heated, 

 will form one solid mass. In the genuine oil, when congealed, the crystals 

 will be found short and uniform, not more in one part than another ; for if 

 they are of different lengths, the oil may be considered as adulterated. It 

 is said that the colour of the attar is no criterion of its goodness, it being 

 sometimes of a fine emerald green, of a bright yellow, and of a reddish 

 hue, from the same ground, and from the same process, only from roses 

 obtained on different days. The real oil, or attar, congeals with a slight 

 cold ; it floats in water, and dissolves in highly rectified spirits of wine. It 

 is seldom imported from India for sale, but considerable quantities are 

 brought from Turkey. 



Rum.— Large quantities of this spirit are manufactured at Bengal, some 

 of which, when it has attained a proper age, is not inferior to the Jamaica 

 rum, and it has this advantage — it is made of better materials. When new, 

 it costs from ten annas to one rupee per gallon ; as it increases in age, tlie 

 price advances in proportion. That rum which is of a brownish transparent 

 colour, of a smooth, oily, grateful taste, of a strong body, and a good con- 

 sistence, is best ; that which is of a clear limpid colour, and hot pungent 

 taste, is new, and should be rejected. 



Safflower (Custom, Hind., Aafour, Arab.) is the flower of an annual 

 plant, the Carthamus tinctoritts, (Cushmanda, San.) growing in Bengal, and 

 other parts of India, which, when well-cured, is not easily distinguished from 

 saffron by the eye, though it has nothing of its smell or taste. Safflower 



