Bracts minute, one-flowered, falling. Flowers numerous, small, yellow, single, approxi mated. Calyx below, five toothed. Filaments united at the base. Anthers incumbent, a white gland on the apex of each, which falls off soon after the flower expands. Style crooked. Stigma simple. Legume long, pendulous, not inflated. Seeds many, lodged in a brown mealy substance. THE pod of this tree is the only part used. It is about an inch in circumference, and from six to twelve long; when ripe, brown, smooth, and contains, besides the seeds, a large quantity of a brown mealy substance, which the natives eat; its taste is sweetish and agreeable, it may therefore be compared to the Spanish Algaroba, or locust-tree. (Ceratonia Siliqua Linn.) NOTE. In compliance with Dr. Kanig's opinion, I have called this a Prosopis, though I am aware that the antheral glands give it a claim to the genus Adenanthera. ΤΟ TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR JOHN SHORE, BART. I GOVERNOR GENERAL, AND PRESIDENT OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. DEAR SIR, HAVE had from Mr. Goldingham (one of the Honourable Company's astronomers at Fort Saint George, a person of much ingenuity, and who ap plies himself to the study of antiquities) some drawings taken from the cave on the island of Elephanta. They are the most accurate of any I have seen, and accompanied with a correct description. This gentleman argues ably in favour of its having been an Hindu temple; yet I cannot assent to his opinion. The immense excavations cut out of the solid rock at the Elephanta, and other caves of the like nature on the island of Salsette, appear to me operations of too great labour to have been executed by the hands of so feeble and effeminate a race as the aborigines of India have generally been held to be, and still continue; and the few figures that yet remain entire, represent persons totally distinct in exterior from the present Hindus, being of a gigantic size, having large prominent faces, and bearing some resemblance to the Abyssinians, who inhabit the country on the west side of the Red Sea, opposite to Arabia, There is no tradition of these caves having been frequented by the Hindus as places of worship; and at this period no poojah is performed at any of them; and they are scarcely scarcely ever visited by the natives. I recollect particularly, that Ragonath Row, when at Bombay, did not at all hold them in any degree of veneration. I flatter myself that you, Sir, will agree with me in thinking the accompanying Memoir deserving of being inserted in our proceedings. MR. Goldingham acquaints me, that he has paid two visits to some curious remains of antiquity, about thirtyfive miles south of Madras, commonly known by the name of the Seven Pagodas. He promises to transmit to me his remarks on these curiosities, with copies of the inscriptions, which are in characters unknown to the people of the district. He declares himself highly ambitious of the favor of being admitted into our Society; and I shall be much gratified in being instrumental to his obtaining that favour, from a conviction that he will greatly add to our stock of information, and prove an useful member I cannot conclude an address to you, Sir, as the worthy successor of the gentleman who lately presided over our Society with so much credit to himself and benefit to the public, without adverting to the memory of Sir William Jones, whose universal science and ardent zeal for diffusing knowledge, I have had so many occasions to admire during the course of an acquaintance of twenty-five years. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Dear Sir, Your most faithful and most obedient servant, Calcutta, 29th July, 1795. |