and nutmegs are accordingly among the articles exhibited. None of these however are as yet largely cultivated, and further experiment is required to say whether or not the produce is capable of competing with that of the Malayan Peninsula. The cultivation of cinnamon we do not doubt might be largely extended.

The subject embraced in Class IV " vegetable and animal substances chiefly used in manufactures as implements and for ornament" were found to be so numerous that the jury of 10 members was compelled to have recourse to a division of labour, appointing sub-juries to undertake the examination of the different subdivisions of the class, which was divided into eight sections as follow:

Lieut. Hawkes undertook the duties of reporter in the section of oils, Dr. Hunter in that of fibrous substances, and Dr. Cleghorn in all the other sections.

Among the gums and resins, so important in commerce, our space will only permit us to notice briefly two substances of great importance from their absolute novelty as products of British India. These are Gamboge, and Gutta-percha.

The existence of Gamboge in the forests of the west coast of India in large quantity has apparently been known for some time to the natives, as it has been occasionally exported in considerable quantity through Bombay to Europe. It was not, however, till the specimens in the Madras Exhibition attracted generalnotice that the attention of merchants and medical men was directed to it. On investigation it was found that the Malabar drug was quite equal in quality both as a pigment and as a medicine, to the best Siam Gamboge, and the Madras medical stores are now supplied with it. As the tree which yields it has been determined by Dr. Cleghorn to be the same as the Garcinia Pictoria of Siam and Malaya, we may with confidence believe it to be of equal quality; and as we may expect to see it form a large article of export, it is gratifying to learn from Dr. Kirkpatrick that the tree is spread over a large extent of country in the Nuggur jungles, occupying a middle position between the edge of the Western Ghats, and the table land in the other direction ;" and from Mr. Maltby, of Canara, that "it is found in the greatest abundance along the whole line of our Ghats" and "might become an important article of export.

The great demand for Gutta-percha and the increasing difficulty of obtaining it in the forests of the Straits have led to a great deal of search for the same or some substitute elsewhere. Gums more or less plastic appear to be yielded by a vast number of different trees, among which many Asclepiadea may especially be mentioned. The most important characteristic of Gutta-percha, however, and that to which it is mainly indebted for its value is its property as a non-conductor of electricity, and consequently as an isolator of the electric current. No substitute possessing these properties was known up to the time of the Madras Exhibition, but gum sent from two portions of the Eastern Ghats, is noticed by the reporter in the following terms:

"General Cullen has forwarded a drawing and description of a large forest tree, abounding at the foot of the Ghats N. E. of Trevandrum. The plant delineated, is evidently one of the Sapotaceo, and the Malayalim name is "pauchonthee," and the product, of which a good sample is forwarded, on examination bears a strong resemblance to Gutta-percha, both in external appearance and mechanical proporties. It appears to the jury, that this gum elastic is possessed of valuable properties, and they beg to recommend that a 2nd class medal be awarded.

"2. Lieutenant Col. F. Cotton, Engineers, forwards from the Neilgherries a small sample of a product similar to Gutta-percha in its smell, general appearance and fracture. No drawing of the tree has been submitted, but a few leaves which surrounded the exudation, very closely resemble the real Isonandra Gutta. The trees are said to be very large and numerous in the forest. The jury award a 2nd class medal."

These specimens were subjected to a careful examination, which has confirmed the value of this Gutta-percha and its abundance in the forests of Travancore, and probably of other parts of the Malabar coast. The species has not yet been determined, but ample means to that end will probably be obtained ere long. If equally valuable with the Straits, Gutta-percha the indigenous tree will probably soon be exhausted; but in a country in which European capital can be so readily applied, we may hope ere long to see this valuable tree an object of cultivation, and the whole world supplied from the lower Malabar hills.

It is well known that for many years the demand for fixed oils has gone or steadily increasing, and that even before the breaking out of the war the great London manufacturers were seeking all parts of the earth for cheap oils, so as to reduce as much as possible the price of two of the great necessaries of life, light and soap. Under existing circumstances, increased prices have of course stimulated that search, and the Madras Exhibition shews clearly that India possesses ample means of supplying the demand, when her productive resources have been properly developed,

Lieut. Hawkes' report gives an excellent review of the different oils in use in the Madras Presidency, their sources, relative abundance or facility of production, and the mode of preparation in common use. As a commissariat officer the subject seems to have attracted his attention, and he has embodied in this report the result of his enquiries and experiences in different parts of the Presidency. His account is prefaced by an abstract of the quantity of oils exported annually from the Madras Presidency from 1848 to 1853. This is one of the many valuable statistical tables contained in the report of the jury which alone confer upon it a great value. We make room for the list of exports for the years 1852-53.

One of the most curious and striking products noticed in the report is the Gamboge butter, which is remarkable as being an innocuous product of the tree which yields the acrid green resin gamboge.

cocum

"The solid butter contained in the seeds of the "gamboge tree" a species closely allied to the G. purpurea which produces the butter" has attracted attention. The gamboge tree grows abundantly in certain parts of the Mysore and Western coast jungles. The oil, which is procurable in moderate quantities, is prepared by pounding the seed in a stone mortar and boiling the mass, until the butter, or oil rises to the surface. Two and a half measures of seed should yield one seer and a half of butter. In the Nuggur Division of Mysore, it is sold at the rate of As. 1-4 per seer of 24 Rs. weight, or at £36-6 per ton, and is chiefly used as a lamp oil by the better classes of natives, and by the poor as a substitute for ghee. The butter thus prepared does not appear to possess any of the purgative qualities of the gam

boge resin, but is considered an antiscorbutic ingredient in food. (The above interesting particulars have been furnished by H. R. Oswald, Esq., M. D., Nuggur Division, Mysore Commission."

The report on dyes and colouring substances by Dr. Cleghorn is, like all the other reports, full of valuable information, and at the same time very suggestive. It commences with Indigo" the most important of Indian dye-stuffs," and therefore highly interesting in an economic point of view. The improvements introduced into the cultivation of Indigo by European skill in Bengal seem to have at last attracted the attention of merchants and planters in the Southern Presidency-with what result the following extract shows:

"In former years the usual mode of extracting Indigo, as practised in Southern India, was from the dry leaf, a process which will be found minutely described in the pages of Heyne and Roxburgh. But this is now almost entirely superseded, by the better system of the green leaf manufacture, which is followed in all the Indigo growing districts of this Presidency, save the Province of South Arcot. In the latter, the dry leaf process is still persevered in, but it is likely that it is only so, from the distance to which the leaf has generally to be carried before it reaches the factory, and the consequent partial drying that takes place on the journey. The Indigo trade of Madras has of late years sustained a great development, though, owing to the drought of 1854, the export fell off above 50 per cent, it having in that year only reached 2,162 candies (about 4,300 chests) while in 1853, it amounted to 5,445 candies (about 10,900 chests)."

A table of the export of Indigo from Madras to the port of London shows a gradual increase from 3600 chests in 1840 to 9761 in 1853. In 1854 from the above mentioned causes the quantity fell to 9229 chests, but the diminution was quite temporary. These numbers show the rapidly increasing importance of the indigo trade of the South, and appear to indicate that the dry hot climate of the Carnatic is well adopted to the cultivation of Indigo. It would appear however that there are still many drawbacks to the success of the manufacture, as the report goes on to say that

"Notwithstanding this importance of the traffic, the general manufacture is so indifferently conducted, or rather on so imperfect a system, that the value of the article produced is seriously diminished, and its currency injured as an article of trade. It is not that the quality of Madras Indigo is inferior to the ordinary run of that of Bengal, for where the manufacture has been conducted on a large scale, and with elaborate care and skill, as in the factories of Messrs. Arbuthnot and Co. at Cuddapah and Bimlipatam, and Messrs. Hart and Simpson in the Cuddapah and Nellore districts, an article is produced which is held in high estimation in the home market, and commands as current a sale as the produce of any Bengal factory. But Indigo is commonly manufactured over the Madras Presidency in driblets; one vat

owner often not producing enough to fill even a chest, and the consequence is, that no one can make a purchase of a quantity of Indigo in the Madras market upon a sample, as is commonly done in Bengal,that every parcel, and often the same chest is of mixed qualities, and that the value of the dye becomes thereby disproportionately depreciat

ed at home."

The remedy for this drawback is self-evident, and if the prospects of the trade continue to advance steadily, capitalists will readily come forward, with the necessary means to concentrate the manufacture, as is generally done in Bengal.

We refer to the report for details regarding the other dyes made in Madras. The only novelty which attracts our attention is a dye obtained from Casuarina Equisitifolia, which we do not recollect to have seen noticed elsewhere, so that further trials have perhaps not confirmed its value. It is thus referred to:

"An entirely new dye-stuff is exhibited by Mr. Jules Lepiné (late of Pondicherry,) obtained from the bark of the Casuarina Equisitifolia. The manufacturer states that the extract is fixed by a solution of Bichromate of Potass: with alum as a mordant the Casuarina gives a reddish nankeen colour, with iron a black colour, and if these mordants are mixed, the result is grey. The Casuarina dye becomes fixed by exposure to air without mordants, a nankeen red is obtained after 30 minutes exposure. At the end of an hour, M. Lepiné states that the colour is not affected by water, alkalies, solar light, or heat. The tallised extract and cloth dyed with the Casuarina were laid before the jury, and the reddish brown colour of the cloth stood the test of washing well. Considering the discovery to be highly creditable to M. Lepiné, the jury award a 2nd class medal."

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Passing over tanning materials as not of sufficient importance in the Exhibition to induce us to linger over them, we come to fibrous substances, perhaps the most important of all the raw products. Dr. Hunter's report ought to be studied by all who are interested in this branch of commerce, not only for a full account of the various fibres exhibited, pointing out their merits and defects, but for the excellent remarks which it contains on the causes of the defects which are so commonly observed in many of the Indian fibrous substances, and the means of preventing them. His instructions on the best mode of preparing each sort of fibre are prefaced by the following general remarks, in which the true principles are so clearly stated that they require no comment:

"Few subjects present a wider or more interesting field for investigation than the best modes of cultivating and cleaning fibrous plants. Hitherto, these branches of industry have not been carried on in India, with sufficient care or energy, to make profitable returns to the agriculturist or the merchant. Some very serious faults have been committed in the process of cleaning Indian fibres, which have tended in a