A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, Volume 2A Scottish doctor and botanist, George Watt (1851-1930) had studied the flora of India for more than a decade before he took on the task of compiling this monumental work. Assisted by numerous contributors, he set about organising vast amounts of information on India's commercial plants and produce, including scientific and vernacular names, properties, domestic and medical uses, trade statistics, and published sources. Watt hoped that the dictionary, 'though not a strictly scientific publication', would be found 'sufficiently accurate in its scientific details for all practical and commercial purposes'. First published in six volumes between 1889 and 1893, with an index volume completed in 1896, the whole work is now reissued in nine separate parts. Volume 2 (1889) contains entries from cabbage (introduced to India by Europeans) to Cyperus (a genus of grass-like flowering plants). |
Common terms and phrases
acid acres Ainslie alkaloids alluded Arjun Assam Baden Powell Balfour bark BENG Bengal boiled Bomb Bombay Botanic BURM Burma Calcutta camel Camphor Cannabis sativa Cassia Ceylon Ceylon PL chiefly China Chittagong Cinchona coal cochineal cocoa-nut coffee coir colour coral crop cultivated Cyclop Dispens district doses dried Drugs Drury Dymock eaten exports febrifuge feet fibre field figures fine first five flowers fruit Gamble gardens Gibs grain grown Habitat—A hemp Himalaya HIND Hort imported juice jute known Kumaon Kurz leaves LEPCHA lime Linn Madras manufacture maunds MEDICINE Moodeen native Nepal nuts O’Shaughnessy obtained orange palm Panjab Pharm plant powder prepared produce properties Provinces quantity quinine remarks reported resin root Roxb Roxburgh Royle Sanskrit Santals says seeds Sikkim soil South India species substance Surgeon Surgeon-Major Timb tion trade tree turmeric U. C. Dutt wild writers yellow yield