The Imperial or Economic Courts.

The Economic Court is divided into four main divisions.

Division 1.—Timbers. Division 2.—Food stuffs—Beverages—Narcotics—Medicines. Division 3.—Oil—Fibres—Skins and Leather—Canes and Basket Work. Division 4.—Gums—Dyes—Tans—Minerals and Oils.

On the walls opposite each Division there are, or will be, index collections of the exhibits.

Timber.—The archway to the Court forms a forest trophy with 3,000 specimens of useful timber.

The Bamboo Trophy is formed of thirty species of bamboo. Around the trophy are a very large collection of articles made of bamboo which may be said to be the "staff of life" among Indo-Chinese nations.

Notice near the Trophy the two women at the mill. "Two women shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken, the other left."

Pood Stuffs.—A pleasant quarter of an hour may be spent in visiting the shops of the fruit seller, vegetable seller, and grain seller.

Fruit.—The most characteristic fruits of India are the mango, guava, letchi, pine-apple, plaintain, and nuts.

The true almond is a sacred offering.

The Singhara nut, grown on a water-weed, is an important article o food. In Kashmir, it is said, 30,000 persons are dependent on this wild plant during certain months.

Cocoanut. See page 24.

Vegetables.—India is the country of the Melon and the Cucumber.

Nearly the whole of the pot herbs are wild plants needing no cultivation. In no country of the world are so many food stuffs to be obtained for the mere cost of collecting.

page 20

Pulses.—Known as "dal" and "gram."

Forty-eight millions of acres devoted to the culture of the lentil. "Rcvalenta "is made from lentils.

Grain.—Rice; sixty millions of acres devoted to its cultivation; five crops each year. Paddy is rice from which the husk has not been removed.

Millet is the staple food of India, taken as a whole.

Wheat.—In 1885 over twenty millions of acres devoted to its cultivation.

Indian wheat has entered into competition with American wheat. Though the carriage to England is cheaper from America than from India, labour is cheaper in India than in America.

Note the Crain Trophy, the idea of which is taken from the famous tomb, Itmad-ud-Dowlah, at Agra.

Sugar is obtained from the sugar cane and the palm.

Narcotics.—Mode of preparation illustrated.

The sale of opium is a Government monopoly worth £9,800,000, of which £9,000,000 is for opium sent to China.

Hemp is smoked as ganja, drunk as hasheesh liquor, or eaten as a sweetmeat called majun.

Drugs.—Over 1,300 plants are reputed by the natives to possess medicinal properties. Over 100 drugs with an established European reputation are exhibited. Cinchona or Peruvian bark, introduced by the Government, flourishes.

Oils, obtained from Linseed, Rape Seed, Sesame, Poppy, EarthNuts, and Castor Seed.

The trade in oil seeds has greatly increased. In 1S79 the trade value was £4,600,000; in 1885, £ 10,745,000.

Ground Nuts are the fruit of the Arachis hypogcea, which, instead of hanging down among the leaves, conceals itself in the earth. The oils of the ground nut and of sesame seed are sold in Europe as olive-oil.

With the oils we class the perfumes: otto of roses, oil of carraway seed, aniseed, patchouli, and sunflower oil, said to be an ingredient in "macassar oil."

Fibres.—The India Flora contains over 300 fibre yielding plants. The chief are Cotton, Jute, and Rhea.

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Notice the Rope Trophy, and the Mats made of coir, or cocoanut fibre; also the collection of Fibres by the Glenrock Company.

Jute.—The value of the exports in 1828 was £62; in 1880, over £6,200,000. Dundee owes its prosperity to the jute manufacture. In 1873 its working classes engaged in jute manufacture increased their deposits in the savings bank £36,000.

Extracts and Inspissated (thickened) Saps.—Camphor—Catechu—Caoutchouc—Gutta-percha—Assafoetida and Indigo. See the collection of Gums—Resins—Byes; also the model of Indigo factory.

Assafœtida, obtained by wounding the root of the Ferula, from which the gum resin flows.

Catechu.—Prepared by boiling down the chips of the khair tree, is useful as a medicine and a condiment, also in dyeing and in Indian tanning.

Lac.—The cocus ficus punctures the twigs of certain trees, and resinous incrustation is formed. Stick-lac is the substance in its natural state on the twigs; when broken off and boiled in water, it becomes seed-lac; when melted and reduced to thin plates, it is termed shell-lac. Remember the use of lac in Indian art ware. In England it is used chiefly for sealing wax and varnishes. Japanese Lacquer is the natural resinous gum of trees.

Notice the model of an Indian Bazaar. Nothing is more characteristic of an Indian village than its bazaar or market-place.

Minerals of India.—The geological survey has furnished an invaluable collection of ores. Coal.—At present there are 80 coal mines worked in India.