order
is their yielding, on being cut, a juice which is generally milky, and
for the most part deemed of a poisonous nature." Of another plant,
producing a similar substance, I received the following information from
Mr. Campbell, in a letter dated in November, 1803: "You may remember a
trailing plant with a small yellowish flower and a seed vessel of an
oblong form, containing one seed; the whole plant resembling much the
caout-chouc. To this, finding it wholly nondescript, I have taken the
liberty to attach your name. It has no relationship to a genus yielding a
similar substance, of which I sent a specimen to Dr. Roxburgh at Bengal,
who published an account of it under the name of urceola. It is called
jintan by the Malays, and of its three species I have accurately
ascertained two, the jintan itam and jintan burong, the latter very rare.
Its leaves are of a deep glossy green, and the flowers lightly tinged
with a pale yellow; it belongs to the tetrandria, and is a handsome
plant--but more of this with the drawing." Unfortunately however neither
this drawing nor any part of his valuable collection of materials for
improving the natural history of that interesting country, which he
bequeathed to me by his will, have yet reached my hands.

GUM.

Mr. Charles Miller observed in the country near Bencoolen a gum exuding
spontaneously from the paty tree, which appeared very much to resemble
the gum-arabic; and, as they belong to the same genus of plants, he
thought it not improbable that this gum might be used for the same
purposes. In the list of new species by F. Norona (Batavian Transactions
Volume 5) he gives to the pete of Java the name of Acacia gigantea; which
I presume to be the same plant.

PULSE.

Kachang is a term applied to all sorts of pulse, of which a great variety
is cultivated; as the kachang china (Dolichos sinensis), kachang putih
(Dolichos katjang), k. ka-karah (D. lignosus), k. kechil (Phaseolus
radiatus), k. ka-karah gatal (Dolichos pruriens) and many others. The
kachang tanah (Arachis hypogaea) is of a different class, being the
granulose roots (or, according to some, the self-buried pods) of a herb
with a yellow, papilionaceous flower, the leaves of which have some
resemblance to the clover, but double only, and, like it, affords rice
pasture for cattle. The seeds are always eaten fried or parched, from
whence they obtain their common appellation of kachang goring.

YAMS.

The variety of root