'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎8] (235/258)

APPENDIX C.
important fact as it appears lias been made nut in Meteorology', and the case is one
where we may probably expect to find the field of the Antiquary overlapping that
of the Geologist. Some singular change indeed must have come around on the surface
of the country before the channel of the Indus could have been thrown fifty miles
to the westward of 'ts ancient course ; ami it is quite clear that papulous cities
rould never have been built or flourished on a barren waterless waste such as that
on which their remains are now found to prevail.— General Woodburn. — Bombay
Times, March, 1856.
APPENDIX C.
BOTANY.
There is at present growing near Sewree a specimen of that beautiful tree, the
<< Bengal’’ or “ Royal Goldmohur”* ('Poinceana elata) as it is called, which affords
ns one of the most striking examples we have met with of rapid growth. The
seed which produced it, was gathered in 1848, and the sapling when about six
inches long and an inch in girth planted out on Waterloo Day (18th June) that
year. It now measures four feet above the ground, three feet four inches in girth,
being thus above thirteen inches in diameter. The hole is eight feet in height,
and the spread of the branches nearly fifty feet.— Bombay Times, September, 1854—
Dr. Buist.
Our mention of the rapidity of growth of a “ Goldmohur” tree (Poinceana
elata) has been capped to-day by an account of the wonderful productive
ness of a mango. “ There is,” says our informant, “ a fine healthy mango
tree in Mrs Hough’s garden, about ten years old, which for the past eighteen
months has afforded fruit nearly all the year round. It yielded a good crop
in May 1853, a second in July, and a third in December, the two latter of course
being much less abundant than the former. In May 1854 it once more gave an
ample crop, it yielded a lesser one in July, in the very heaviest of our rains, and it
is now once more in flower. Productiveness of tins sort may be all very delight
ful for the garden, but it would be rather inconvenient for the Nursery.”—Bombay
Times — Dr. Buist. *
The observer in natural history will derive no small pleasure at present from
visiting our various tanks, to see how beautifully nature carries on her operations.
When the Framjee Cowasjee tank was cleared out and deepened in 1850, a vast
mass of the cemented shells and gravel called Littoral-concrete was taken from
it, the bottom being lowered as much as circumstances would permit. The rains came
before the operation was finally completed, and the bottom was thus left grooved
intocanfls with masses of rock between. At present the water, about 20 feet above
these, is ns transparent as the brightest crystal, and occupied here and there by
vast floating masses of the soft pulpy plant called the Serpicula verticillata, which
has theinvaluable faculty of maintaining the tank or pond in which it lives in the
most perfect purity—insomuch that ajug or tub may be kept pure for an indefinite
length of time, merely by containing a few sprigs of the plant. In looking into
the tank a magnificent marine landscape presents itself, with snow white rocks
and valleys, and rich green miniature forests in all directions. Fishes are seen
in abundance every where, and a few small bright-eyed frogs skimming the surface
complete the picture ; looking up at thespectator just before they plunge in, as if to
say, catch me if you can. Water thus pure is nearly devoid of insects, even of the
* The Uoldmohurs here mentioned were stripped of nearly all their branches by the hurri
cane of November 1854, and refused to flower for tlie season. That which measured 3 f 4 in.
in September 1854 increased to 3 f. 8 in. by April 1855, notwithstanding the ill usage experienced
by it.