About 5 candies of an inferior quality are procured from Velater, which are sold at about half the price of the others. Many merchants, by looking at cardamums, can tell the country whence they came. Those from Wynaad, including those also of Cartinaad and Tamaratchery, contain many round, full white grains, or capsules. Those of Coorg have fewer black, or light ones. The Velater sort are long, dark coloured, and thin skinned. Cardamums are never garbled, except for the Europe market; they are exported chiefly to Bengal, Bombay, Surat, Cutch, and the different ports in Arabia. Cardamums should be chosen full, plump, and difficult to be broken, of a bright yellow colour, of a piercing smell, with an acrid, bitterish, though not very unpleasant taste, and particular care should be taken that they are properly dried. They are reckoned to keep best in a body; and are therefore packed in large chests well-jointed, pitched at the seams, and otherwise properly secured, as the least damp greatly reduces their value. Freight 12 Cwt. to the ton.

GREATER CARDAMUMS.-This kind is produced on Ceylon, Java, and in some other parts of the East. The pods are large and long, triangular, thick-skinned, and dark-coloured, some approaching nearly to black; the smell is less acrid, and the taste nauseous and disagreeable, not the least resembling that of the Malabar cardamums. These have occasionally been imported into England, but are not esteemed.

CHAYA ROOT is a small root (of the Oldenlandia Umbellata) from 15 to 25 inches long, very slender, with few fibres, cultivated on the Coasts of Malabar and Coromandel, and other parts of India. It is used in dying red, purple, a deep clear brown, and to paint the red figures on Chintz. The woody part of the chaya root is white and tasteless; it is the bark only which is possessed of the colouring principle. When fresh, it is orange coloured, tinges the saliva yellow, and leaves a slight degree of acrimony on the point of the tongue for some hours after chewing. To appearance it loses its yellow colour in drying, but still retains the above property on being chewed. It impregnates cold water or spirits with a straw colour, and to boiling water it gives a brownish porter colour. The colouring powers of the root are said to be improved by keeping three or four years. When the wild sort can be obtained, it is preferred; and if to be had of two years' growth, it is reckoned still better. It is not esteemed by the English dyers.

Coco NUTS.-This commodity is an article of considerable trade, in various branches, in all parts of India-the kernel, the husk of the nut, of which coir is made; and the oil which is expressed from the kernel. It is the produce of the Cocos Nucifera, a palm common throughout India. It

begins bearing when seven or eight years old, and lives so long, that its period of duration cannot readily be ascertained. A good tree will yield from 50 to 100 nuts annually. The kernel is much used by the natives in different modes of dressing; when cut into pieces and dried, it is called

copra.

COIR is manufactured from the husks of the coco-nut, composed of small strings and threads, which, being soaked some time in water, become soft. When beaten, the other substance falls away like saw-dust, leaving only the strings; these are afterwards spun into long yarns, and rolled into balls. The cordage thus manufactured is much esteemed in India, and preferred to that of Europe on some occasions, from its advantage of floating on the surface of the water.

COCULUS INDICUS, or Indian berry, grows in considerable clusters on the Menispermum, a large tree on the Malabar Coast. It is a small kidney-shaped berry, having a wrinkled outside, with a seam running along the back, of a dark brown colour. It has a white kernel inside, of a most unpleasant taste. It is said that the principal use of the berry in England is to mix with malt liquors, in order to make them intoxicating; but this practice is expressly forbidden by Act of Parliament, (See 13 Ann., st. 1, c. 2., § 32.) These berries should be chosen sound, dry and clean, heavy, large, and free from stalks and dirt. The small and broken should be re

jected. Freight 16 Cwt. to the ton.

CONESSI BARK is the bark of the Nerium Antidysentericum, a small tree growing on the Coast of Malabar and Ceylon. It is of a blackish colour on the outside, covered more or less with a white moss or scurf, and of an austere and bitter taste. The bark of the small young branches which has the least moss or scurf, is preferred. It is little known in the shops here, though much esteemed in some parts of India.

CORNELIANS. These stones are brought from Cambay; they are found in roundish oval masses, somewhat like our common pebbles, from 1 to 3 inches in diameter; of a close compact texture, and when cut, of a bright glossy surface; their colours are red, white, yellow, and variegated.

The colour of the red cornelian varies from the palest flesh colour, to the deepest blood red: this sort is most in demand, great quantities being consumed in the manufacture of seals, and other trinkets. They should be chosen of a deep clear and even red colour, free from cracks, flaws, and veins, and the larger and thicker they are, the more they are esteemed; those which are muddy should be rejected. The white are scarce, and when large, thick, of an even colour, and free from flaws, are valuable. The yellow and variegated are but in little estimation, and should be rejected

Necklaces, ear-rings, and other trinkets are manufactured at Cambay from cornelians, and are an article of trade to Europe; they should be chosen of pure clear colours, well cut, and free from cracks and flaws.

Cornelian stones are sometimes imported in their rough state from Bombay. In chusing them, such as are chipped should be rejected, as those have been tried and refused by the stone-cutters at Cambay. Freight 20 Cwt. to a ton.

COTTON WOOL is the soft vegetable down which forms the covering or envelope of the seeds of the Gossypium, or cotton plant, which is the spontaneous production of three parts of the globe, Asia, Africa, and America. Considerable quantities are imported from Surat, Madras, and Bengal, and occasionally from the Islands of Bourbon and Mauritius.

The cotton from the different quarters of the globe varies considerably in colour and length, strength and fineness of fibre. White is in general considered of secondary quality. The cotton of the Levant is distinguished by its want of colour, and the chief part of that from North America is also white. Yellow, when not the effect of accidental wetting, or inclement season, is indicative of greater fineness. The cotton of the West Indies and of South America is called yellow, but inclines more to cream colour.

The East India cottons rank in the following order :-Bourbon, Surat, Bengal, Madras.

I. Bourbon is the most even and uniform in quality; it is of a long silky staple, very clean, and is the most valuable kind imported into England, except the Sea Island, Georgia.

II. Of the Surat cottons, the Ahmood is the best; the fibre is very fine, but not of long staple. The specimens upon which experiments have been made, fully prove, that if such cotton could always be imported, it would command a high price, and meet a ready market. The other places are Baroach, Bownaghur, Surat, Jambooser, Oclasur, Hansoote, &c. Great advantages would be acquired by freeing the cotton of every particle of foulness, as well as every mixture of tinged or inferior staple before it is packed up, leaving nothing to be made up into bales but the purest cotton; by which the value would be much increased in England, and the freight considerably reduced by the impurities left behind, which are besides not only a great injury to the sale and value of the cotton, but the picking alone, which costs 3d. per lb. in England, could be performed for 1d. in India.

It is impossible to be too attentive to the great object of shipping no cotton but what is perfectly clean; it should, in fact, be put into that

precise state in which it is placed by the women of India previous to its being spun into yarn. The coarse and middling qualities should be rejected.

III. The Bengal cotton imported is much like that of Surat, but of rather shorter staple, the superior kinds being reserved for the manufacture of muslins and other piece-goods.

IV. Of Madras cotton but little is imported; it is in general dirty, containing much seed, which reduces its value in England very considerably. Small quantities are occasionally met with raised from Bourbon seed, which it resembles in staple, but falls far short in cleanness and colour.

In the first edition of this Work, the author inserted a statement shewing the progressive increase in the importation of cotton into Great Britain, in order to furnish some idea of the prosperity of our cotton manufactures. That statement was brought down to the year 1802, in which year the total quantity imported from all parts of the world had reached 60,329,311 lbs. To shew the prodigious extension since then of this branch of our trade, the following statements are subjoined; whence it appears, that the quantity of raw cotton imported into, Great Britain last year, was nearly treble the amount which MR. MILBURN deemed so large; and that upwards of one hundred and fifty millions of pounds weight were in that year spun and manufactured.

The following is the quantity of cotton wool imported into Great Britain from all parts of the world during three years, ending 1823.

The quantity imported from the East in these years, is small compared with that of preceding. In 1817, the number of packages was 117,955; in 1818, 247,300; and in 1819, 178,300. But an excessive importation in those years glutted the market, and reduced the price of the commodity in this country below that which it bore at the place of its growth. The East India Company in consequence re-exported to China, in the year 1821, upwards of three millions of pounds weight.

The following is the quantity of cotton wool taken for spinning for three years, ending 1823.

Official value of cotton wool exported from Great Britain, either raw or manufactured, for three years, ending 1823.

Hence it appears that this single commodity enriches the country to the amount of twenty-one millions sterling annually, besides supplying the home market with manufactures.

EUPHORBIUM is the concrete resinous juice of the Euphorbia Antiquorum, a prickly shrub, growing in Malabar and various parts of India. It is in tears of an irregular form, some of which are found, on being broken, to contain little thorns, twigs, &c.; others are hollow, without any thing in the cavity; the tears are of a bright light yellow, between straw and gold colour, on the outside, and white within; easy to break, having little smell, but the taste violently sharp and acrimonious. It is to be chosen dry, clean, and of a bright colour; its acrid taste is the great mark of its goodness, and ought to be such as to inflame the whole mouth, on holding a very small piece therein for a short space of time.

FISH MAWS are an article of trade from various parts of India to China, where they are much esteemed as an article of luxury. In chusing them, care should be taken that they are properly cured, or they will be subject to decay, and not be worth the freight; the largest are to be preferred.

FOLIUM INDICUM, Tauzpaut, said to be the Malabathrum of the ancients, is the leaf of the Laurus cassia, (Tejpat, Hind.); it is large, of an oblong figure, smooth and glossy on the upper side, and less so on the lower. Its colour is a dusky green on one side, and a pale brown on the other. It is furnished with three ribs, running its whole length, very protuberant on the lower side; and it has two smaller ones near the edges. Its smell, when fresh, is aromatic and agreeable, somewhat resembling that of a mixture of cloves and cinnamon; taste rather acrid and bitterish, but very aromatic: when chewed, it renders the saliva slimy and glutinous. The more aromatic the flavour, the warmer the taste, and the fresher, the more it is esteemed. Freight, 8 Cwt. to the ton.

HEMP. The Island of Salsette produces two sorts of this commodity; one resembles the Bengal Paut, the leaves and young fruit of which are used as food, and the fibrous part employed in several kinds of cordage. The