BOTANICAL TOUR IN THE LAKHIMPUR DISTRICT, ASSAM. 7I 
remarkable feature is the sterile aspect of some very large tracts 
covered by a close scrub composed of Solanum torvum and Flemin'" 
gia congesta but principally the former. 
Regarding this plant Captain W. H. Lowther sounded a note 
of alarm in the Journal of the Agri. -Horticultural Society of India^ 
Volume XI (1861), page 290. The article is entitled On the mis- 
chievous increase of a gigantic species of Solanum on the North- 
East Frontier of Bengal, more especially in the Tea Districts 
of Assam.'^ 
He states that 'the plant was identified as Solanum torvumy 
Swartz, and that it promised to be one of the most stubborn and for- 
midable antagonists with which Indian agriculture would ever have to 
contend. 
So far as he could ascertain the plant was of spontaneous origin 
and only forced itself on human notice some ten or twelve years 
before in Upper Assam where its rapid growth and productiveness 
had earned for it an evil repute. The fruits are too nauseous to 
be palatable to human beings, but they are devoured by many ani- 
mals and birds and the seeds always pass undigested. 
The military outpost at Saikwa on the Brahmaputra was deserted 
chiefly because it was overwhelmed by this plant, which no 
outlay could diminish or keep in check, and now, at Sadiya, on the 
opposite bank, the same state of affairs seemed imminent. The 
heaviest growth is observed on recently deserted fields. 
Fortunately we can say, after the lapse of 33 years, that the 
writer’s fears have not been realized and, although Solanum torvum 
is still a pest in the deserted homesteads of Upper Assam, it readily 
succumbs to the influence of careful and continuous cultivation. 
Where it flourishes (and that is never in the forests), it stands 
bearing eloquent testimony to the pernicious results caused by ‘'joom" 
cultivation, a custom still followed by the mountain and sub-mon- 
tane tribes, but this system is now greatly checked and will soon 
be traditional in the settled districts. Many areas of valuable land 
abandoned by indolent cultivators are overrun by this Solanum 
with other equally harmful shrubs and by many species of strong 
coarse grasses long before a more valuable type of vegetation is 
strong enough to compete with them on equal terms. Artemisia 
vulgaris^ Plectranthus ternifolius and Lespedeza sericea are very 
common as are also three remarkable climbers not observed at Makum, 
namely, Acanthopanax aculeatum, Myxopyrum smilacifolium and 
Miquelia Kleinii. Of trees the most interesting are Ficus pomifera 
with clear, grey, cylindrical trunk bearing figs in clusters ; Echtno* 
