358 



Dr. Wight's Remarks on the culture 



[April 



entirely with the accurate description and figure given in Gartner' s 

 work, quoted at the beginning of this paper f — Transactions of the Me- 

 dical and Physical Society of Calcutta, Vol. VIII. Part 1. 



Note. 



I beg to refer the reader to Mr. Royle's valuable Illustrations of the Botany of the 

 Himalayan Mountains, p. ]86 to 188, and again p. 201, Tab. 37, for very important and 

 interesting information respecting the plant and drug which form the subject of the above 

 paper. It arrived in India long after I had presented my notes to the Medical Society, 

 otherwise I should have given these substantial value by copious extracts from my highly 

 esteemed friend's masterly work. His very accurate figure of the plant supersedes en- 

 tirely the necessity of any being added to this paper. 



N. W. 



H. C. Bot. Garden, ~th J\ov. 1836, 



Addenda to the foregoing bij Dr. Wight; leing practical remarks on 

 the Culture and Preparation of Senna in the Madras territories, 



Madras, March, 1837. 

 My dear Sir, — As you requested, 1 have looked carefully over Dr. 

 W allien' s notes on the Cassia lanceolata. With the exception of a few 

 brief instructions for cultivation, I find it a purely botanical account, 

 examining first the synonymy, and concluding with a minute and accu- 

 rate description of the plant itself. A paper of that kind, coming as it 

 does from the Magnus Apollo of Indian Botanists, leaves, so far as it 

 goes, no room for remark. Since, however, it is your intention to 

 reprint it in the Madras Journal, the following additions may prove 

 useful to those, who either are, already, engaged in its crltivation, or 

 who may contemplate speculating in that way : and here I may remark 

 that, considering the ease and certainty with which this drug can be 

 raised and prepared for the market, and its vast consumption both in 

 India and Europe, it seems to promise a very large return to the 

 speculator. The consumption in Europe alone is stated by Mr. Royle, 

 {Illustrations of Botany, fyc.), to amount to four millions of pounds, 

 that of India it may be difficult to determine, but it is well known that 

 the natives are in the habit of using largely the indigenous, broad 

 pointed leaved kind, though said to be much inferior, which would, as a 

 matter of course, give place to the better sort, if as easily procurable. 

 This I think would soon be the case, if the cultivation was extended, 

 as it has already become so completely naturalized in the Tipnevelly 

 district, as to be met with, in many places, as a common weed. It 

 possesses besides the power of resisting heat and drought to an 

 astonishing extent. I have seen it, during the hottest season, in full 

 bloom and luxuriance, on old stone walls, and on soils so dry that no 

 other herbaceous plant could survive, and where vegetation, in the 

 arboreous plants, seemed nearly, if not altogether,- arrested by the heat 

 and long prevalence of strong land-winds. This fact (as shall be after- 

 wards shown) is well worthy of attention. 



