1836.] Boyle's Botany, SfC. of the Himalayas and Cashmere. 423 



ginatum (ogla) which comes very near the Linnean specimens of F. 

 tataricum, is preferred in higher and drier climates, as in Kunawur. 

 Thus the more closely we examine the distribution of plants and the 

 agriculture of different countries, the nearer do we observe the corres- 

 pondence in practical results among those which participate in the 

 same peculiarities of climate ; and we cannot but admire the bounty of 

 Nature which affords even in what appear sterile wastes, some article 

 fitted for the food of man, and suited to the climate, with others which 

 are adapted for commerce, as buckwheat, borax, musk, and rhubarb, 

 from the three kingdoms of Nature, in the cold, bleak, and arid plains 

 and mountains of Tatary." Page 314 to 317. 



"The herbaceous parts of many of this family, (Chenopodice) as spi- 

 nage, &c. being insipid and mucilaginous, have been used as vegetable 

 food in many parts of the world ; so, in India, are several species of Che' 

 nopodium (bhutwa, &c.) Beta hengalensis (palung and paluk), Spinacia 

 tetranda (isfanakh), and also Basella rubra (poee). The roots of beet 

 and mangel-wurzul also afford food : the successful extraction of sugar 

 from the former, is one of the triumphs of science. The seed of some 

 are considered aromatic and stimulant, as Chenopodium Botrys, and 

 Ambrosoides. C. vulvaria is said by M. Chevalier to exhale ammonia 

 during the whole of its existence (Lindley, Nat. Ord. p. 168). The loose 

 cellular texture of many of this family is supposed to favour the 

 absorption and deposition of soda in their substance, when growing in 

 the vicinity of the sea ; and this in such considerable quantities, as to 

 afford, by the incineration of several species of Sals o la, Salicornia, 

 Sueda, &c, the chief supply of the barilla of commerce on the coasts 

 of Spain, the S. of France, and of Arabia. Dr. Roxburgh has already 

 suggested (Flor. Ind. 2. p. 62), that Salicornia indica and brachiata, 

 with Salsola nudijlora, are so abundant on the coasts of India, as to 

 be able to supply barilla sufficient to make soap and glass for the 

 whole world. A coarse kind of barilla is procurable in Indian bazars, 

 under the name sejjee muttee (soda-earth.) This is procured by the 

 incineration of plants (unknown) growing not in the neighbourhood of 

 the sea, but on the shores of the salt lakes scattered through the Indian 

 deserts. It seems worthy of inquiry, whether the Salsola, so abun- 

 dant on the banks of the Jumna, would yield soda, and also, whether it 

 would be possible to grow any of these soda-secreting plants in the 

 saline and barren country to its westward, where nothing else will 

 now grow." Page 319. 



** The Myristicecs, usually placed near Laurinece, are considered by 

 Dr. Lindley more closely allied to Anonacecs. They are natives ex- 

 clusively of the tropics of India and America. In the Old World, they 



