of obtaining oil from the seeds, and in this case it might be of use to instruct the natives how the plant might be advantageously manufactured.

The kind of hemp you mention grows up very luxuriantly, as a reed in our gardens here, the culture of which plant has been laid under certain regulations and restrictions by Tippoo Sultaun, as affording a revenue on the best principles, the flowers of this plant being one of those narcotics that, like opium and tobacco, are coveted by the natives of Asia.

The cannabis sativa, if memory serves me, rises in Europe with a single stem and pretty entire leaf; but, as this ginga bang, or Indian kind, is a very branchy shrub, with leaves deeply intersected, I have hitherto considered it a different species or variety; but as Dr. Fleming afsures me that he has raised hemp from Europe seed in the botanical garden at Calcutta, there can be no doubt of the practicability of raising it in any quantity under suitable care and encouragement.

From what I have said, you will observe that the Indians cultivate hemp and flax for the sake of the flowers of the one, and the seeds of the others only: for the purposes of thread, cordage, or coarse cloth, they prepare the bark of crotularia juncea, asclepias gigantea, hubiscus sabdariffa, and caunabinis, and a variety of other plants, nearly in the same manner as the bark of hemp and flax is prepared in Europe. Wherefore it appears that a quantity of suitable materials for cordage may be more readily collected. in Hindostan from these than from either flax or hemp, especially crotularia juncea, the sanap or janap of the

every part of India for the manufacture of a stuff called gunney, which is in general and common use.

The husk of the cocoa nut has hitherto been the Indian material of ship cordage, and adopted occasionally by Europe ships with advantage; and I am cultivating palm trees, the fibres of the leaves of one of which, the caryota urens of Linnæus, and the singular filaments of another, the sagus gampotoo of Rumphius, as well as the grain of the woody stem or trunk of a third sort, the ganemoo of Amboyna, I am well afsured afford the most abundant and best materials for cordage.

Mr. William Webb of this place has lately made cordage of the leaves of the great aloe, that, as I am told, proves to be capable of sustaining four times the weight that hempen rope of the same size can bear, and there can be no doubt that maritime affairs may derive support from this country; our teak is superior in every respect to oak, and it has been uniformly found, that ships built of this country teak last much longer in these seas than any constructed in Europe.

As you have properly referred your business to the board of trade, who, since the institution of the Bengal Asiatic society, must be sensible that we are more deficient in men to do or execute any new work than in speculative science to point it out; my advice is, to abide by their determination, not doubting but that it will prove favourable to your views, and the very laudable intentions of the Court of Directors.

JAMES ANDERSON.

Farther remarks on the Gooseberry Caterpillar.

UNLESS experiments are continued till the particular object desired be fully attained, they are scarcely of any use, as they only occasion perplexity and doubt. Let this be my apology for recurring once more to this subject.

Having been rather late in beginning my observations on the gooseberry caterpillar last season, I had no expectation that the whole could be extirpated in my garden. This made me watch their first appearance this year; and I have had the satisfaction to find, that my efforts to extirpate this destructive vermin have been more successful than I could have expected; for, though I have hitherto examined the bushes in my garden, being in number above a hundred, I have not been able to discover in all above twenty or thirty leaves that have been touched by them, which were of course easily picked off.

The tenthredo caterpillar may be first discovered by the appearance of a few small holes in the leaf, as if they had been pricked by a pin. Where you observe two, three, or more such holes in a leaf, without any kind of discolouring, you will generally find, upon examining the under part of the leaf, that a few of the caterpillars have been hatched, and have each begun to eat; but the creature is now so small, and so much of the same colour with the leaf, that you must examine it with attention before you perceive it. The greatest part of the brood, however, remain still in the

the leaf in regular rows of an oblong shape and whitish colour. These could be very easily discovered by the naked eye, were the leaf above it. From this regular disposition of the eggs upon the leaf, it is evident that they must have been deposited there by the parent fly after the leaf has been formed, and consequently that the eggs have not been preserved through the winter, as one of my correspondents conjectured they were. It is, therefore, in its chrysalis state that the tenthredo pafses the winter.

If the leaf be allowed to remain a little longer on the stalk, the holes become much more numerous, in consequence of more eggs being hatched. By and by they run into one another, and the whole soft part of the leaf is eaten out; but the fibres of the leaf being too hard for the teeth of the caterpillar in this state, these are left untouched, and they proceed forward till they come to its edges, where they continue in clusters, never quitting it so long as any soft part of the leaf remains; and it is only after the whole is exhausted, and the leaf afsumes the appearance of a parcel of dry threads, that they abandon it for another. As the progrefs of this creature when so small is comparatively very slow, it gives the attentive ob. server an easy opportunity of thus extirpating the whole if he chooses: for it is some days after they begin to eat before the leaf be wholly consumed; and they adhere to it so firmly as seldom to drop upon another. I have counted as many as a hundred and fifty on one leaf, the one half of which, if suffered to go on undisturbed, would eat up all the leaves that grow on a large bush; so that by taking off this single leaf in

Farther remarks on the Gooseberry Caterpillar.

UNLESS experiments are continued till the particular object desired be fully attained, they are scarcely of any use, as they only occasion perplexity and doubt. Let this be my apology for recurring once more to this subject.

Having been rather late in beginning my observations on the gooseberry caterpillar last season, I had no expectation that the whole could be extirpated in my garden. This made me watch their first appearance this year; and I have had the satisfaction to find, that my efforts to extirpate this destructive vermin have been more successful than I could have expected; for, though I have hitherto examined the bushes in my garden, being in number above a hundred, I have not been able to discover in all above twenty or thirty leaves that have been touched by them, which were of course easily picked off.

you

The tenthredo caterpillar may be first discovered by the appearance of a few small holes in the leaf, as if they had been pricked by a pin. Where observe two, three, or more such holes in a leaf, without any kind of discolouring, you will generally find, upon examining the under part of the leaf, that a few of the caterpillars have been hatched, and have each begun to eat; but the creature is now so small, and so much of the same colour with the leaf, that you must examine it with attention before you perceive it. The greatest part of the brood, however, remain still in the