Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c29.t2.93

v2.c29.t2.93

Nature has bountifully supplied many spontaneous vegetable products for the use of man, and excellent pasture for cattle. Guar, Kachri, Kakri, all of the cucurbitaceous family, and water-melons of a gigantic size, are produced in great plenty.³ The latter is most valuable ; for being cut in slices and dried in the sun, it is stored up [201] for future use when vegetables are scarce, or in times of famine, on which they always calculate. It is also an article of commerce, and much admired even where vegetables are more abundant. The copious mucilage of the dried melon is extremely nourishing; and deeming it valuable as an antiscorbutic in sea voyages, the Author sent some of it to Calcutta many years ago for experiment.¹ Our Indian ships would find no difficulty in obtaining a plentiful supply of this article, as it can be cultivated to any extent, and thus be made to confer a double benefit on our seamen and the inhabitants of those desert regions. The superior magnitude of the water-melons of the desert over those of interior India gives rise to much exaggeration, and it has been gravely asserted by travellers in the sand tibas,² where they are most abundant, that the mucilage of one is sufficient to allay the thirst both of a horse and his rider.