54 
NOTES ON A JOURNEY FROM HAVER! TO KUMT4. 
Spending height, so that each tree stands on a slope ; the distance apart 
of the trees in the lines is about 5 feet. In this plantation no irrigation 
is used ; and cattle-dung not being available, the chief manure consists 
of young branches and leaves from the neighbouring forset ' such 
manure had recently been laid down on the surface to a depth of 
about 9 inches ; between the palms cardamoms are grown, pepper 
vines are trained up the stems, and plantains occupy all odd places. 
At Sumpkand, 27 miles from the coast, Gymnema sylvestre^ Br., was 
found. It was not in dower, so the test of its remarkable property of 
suspending temporarily the ability to taste sugar was applied ; it has 
been said also to suspend the power of tasting quinine, and one of the 
servants, who has been gorged with that useful drug for some days, 
was made happy in the prospect ; but it proved fallacious, as far as 
his and my own experience went ; no doubt it did alter the taste of 
quinine somewhat, but it did not remove its bitterness. This plant is 
widely distributed on the hill ranges in Western India, but nowhere 
occurs sO abundantly as in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
district bungalow^ at Sumpkand, North Kanara. It has not any w^ell- 
knewn vernacular name, and its properties were not known to any 
of the people I met with, who were quite familiar with the properties 
of Hemiaesmus indicuSy Br. To fulhl an indent for the dried 
leaves of G. sylvestre^ I set about collecting and also made the 
bungalow peon familiar with it, to facilitate the collection of future 
supplies. It may be worth noting that the coolies employed to 
gather the leaves were lads, named Gunpa and Jivva, 
The vegetation here shows indications of a decided increase in 
moisture. Among Orchids Rhynchostylis retusa, Blume., Coslogyne 
bicolor^ Lindl,, Saccolahium Wightianum^ Hook, f., Cottonia 
macrostachys, Wight., Pholidota imbricata^ Lindl., Vanda parvijlora^ 
Lindl, and a few others, occur ; and of ferns, Blechnum orientals^ 
Linn., Stnnoloma chinensis^ Swartz., Gleichenia linearis^ Burm., 
Alsophylia glabra^ Hook., Lygodium microphyllum, R. Br., Pteris 
pelluciday Presl., Adiantum lunulatunij Burm., Athyrium filix- 
fcBmina^ Bernh. In shady nooks by the road-side, even at this dry 
season (May), magnificent groups of those ferns may be seen, but 
Gleichenia linearis (like Pteris longifolia in other districtsl bears 
full sunshine with impunity. Here was first met with the one 
solitary example of Araliaceae in Western India, H eptafteuron 
W allichidnum^ C. B. Clarke. It is not a larg^e glabrous tree " 
here, but a subscandent shrub. Here was a large JackT^^uit tpse 
with over one hundred of its grand golden-coloured fruits nearly 
ripe, and near it, three specimens of Amo*'phophallus eommutatus, 
Schott, in dower. The roots of the latter were dug up, labelled. 
