VEGETATION ON THE BANKS OF THE INDUS. 
541 
compost of equal parts sandy loam and leaf- 
mould. The best place to grow them in while 
young is a hot-bed frame, but, if this con- 
venience is not at hand, a plant-stove will do ; 
they like a strong moist heat. Wherever 
placed, they must be shifted two or three times 
during their progress, and kept liberally sup- 
plied with water. The nearer they can be 
kept to the glass, the better, especially in their 
younger stages. 
VEGETATION ON THE BANKS OF THE INDUS, 
WITH A GLANCE AT THE PRODUCTIONS OF AFGHANISTAN. 
We have glanced at the vegetation of the 
Punjab and Kashmir, and now propose to 
extend our view down the river Indus from 
Mooltan to the sea, as we have formerly ex- 
tended it upwards from Mooltan to the Hindu 
Kush. As we have remarked, the possession 
by England of the fertile region of the Five 
Rivers confers a peculiar interest on the sub- 
ject, the more especially so, as, from all we 
hear from India, it appears that warm discus- 
sions will be revived, and old quarrels kindled 
anew. We shall have a party contending 
that the newly acquired territory is utterly 
valueless, and we shall have another main- 
taining it to be among the most productive of 
our Indian possessions. Truth, in this, as in 
most other things, lies midway between ex- 
tremes, although, if compelled to choose one 
assertion or the other, we should infallibly 
decide with those who regard with gratifica- 
tion the policy which has crushed the abomi- 
nable power of Lahore, which has torn up the 
roots of ever-recurring disasters, wars, and 
bloodshed, and added a new province to our 
vast empire, in the East. 
• From Lahore to the sea there is an unin- 
terrupted communication by water. The 
Five Rivers roll into the Indus, and down 
the current of that noble stream, with all its 
old associations, with all the beauty of its 
aspect, the verdure of its banks, and the mag- 
nificent scenery of its shores, will float the 
produce of the Punjab, to be shipped at Kutch 
for conveyance along the coast, or across the 
sea to Europe, or the other regions of the 
world. This is an advantage the value of 
which cannot be overrated. Did the Indus 
run across a stony and trackless desert, peo- 
pled by savages, and offering no oasis of 
verdure for the civilized man to dwell on, it 
would still form a feature of great importance 
to the prosperity of the Punjab ; but rolling 
as it does across a region revelling in a luxury 
of vegetation, covered with harvests, spangled 
with thickets of the richest roses, shaded by 
groves, and made fragrant by the odours of a 
thousand gardens, it may be considered as 
precious beyond calculation, both to the people, 
to whom it brings plenty, wealth, and com- 
fort, and to the government, which cannot too 
highly appreciate its value and importance. 
When Sindh was annexed, great was the 
outcry raised. Loud were the clamours which 
swelled in violent chorus in the Indian capi- 
tals, and were faintly re-echoed and repeated 
here at home. We have seen what hot con- 
tention has been caused on this subject, what 
monstrous statements have been put forward, 
and how direful have been the lamentations 
of certain friends of anarchy, not always too 
patriotic in their sentiments, concerning the 
waste of treasure which had been caused by 
the conquest, and the still greater waste 
which would accrue from the possession of 
Sindh. We have also seen how those state- 
ments have been demolished by the sensible 
speculators on Indian affairs, both here and in 
the East. Let us now glance at the bankh of 
that portion of the Indus which rolls through 
Sindh, and decide whether it was an arid 
desert or a land of plenty which was the trophy 
of the hard-fought battle of Masannee. 
Below Tatta, while the Amirs reigned, not 
one fourth of the land was brought under 
cultivation. It was a miserable country. 
Huge tracts, covered with brown bushes and 
thankless scrub, showed what a paternal go- 
vernment could do ; for here the soil was 
rankly rich, although tillage was almost com- 
pletely neglected. Above, where the Indus 
flows in an uninterrupted and single stream, 
a different appearance was, however, in many 
places presented. Still, the delta of the Indus, 
like that of the Nile, might easily be made fertile 
andproductive. An abundance of green forage, 
growing wild, serves as excellent pasture for 
buffaloes; whilst small spots of ground, brought 
under cultivation by the labour of a few wan- 
dering tribes, dwelling in temporary villages, 
or moveable huts, constructed of reeds and 
mats, showed that all that was wanting was 
industry, to cover the land with crops. 
Large quantities of rice, immense numbers 
of canes, from which a coarse kind of sugar 
is produced, with wheat, barley, and a grain 
called moong, are raised in the delta of the 
Indus. The fields are irrigated by making 
cuts, opened from the river previous to the 
periodical inundation. This regular flooding 
of the land, although not conducive to health, 
is the principal source of fertility in the 
region, as the subsidence of the waters leaves, 
besides the natural effect of the irrigation, a 
layer of fat ooze spread over the cjui 
