1 46 CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS
2 The nearer we approach the rivers in the Pun-
3 jaub, the greater the fertility. Irrigation, though
4 of the most primitive kind, scientifically con-
5 sidered, does something for the districts remote
6 from the great reservoirs, but still there are large
7 tracts of country, where nothing but the mimosa,
8 the tamarisk, and similar offspring of dry and
9 sandy soils flourish. Again, as we approach the
10 mountains we find a richer country and many
11 extensive jungles, exhibiting the natural produc-
12 tiveness of the country, and the urgent necessity
13 for the regulating and directing hand of the
14 farmer and the gardener.
15 The chief products of the cultivated and most
16 fertile parts of the Punjaub are wheat and other
17 descriptions of grain, indigo, sugar, rice, opiuni,
18 cotton, hemp, assafcetida, and various sorts of oil
19 seeds. The gardens yield guavas, dates, man-
20 goes, limes, lemons, peaches, apricots, figs, pome-
21 granates, plums, oranges, mulberries, grapes,
22 almonds, melons, apples, beans, cucumbers, ear-
23 rots, turnips, and a great variety of fruits un-
24 known even by name to Europeans. Flowers,
25 too, are likewise produced in beautiful profusion.
26 In the more arid and neglected parts of the
27 country, we find the date palm, wild palm, wil-
28 lows, acacias, the sissoo (an Indian tree valuable
29 for its timber), the camel thorn, the byr applcj
30 the madder (tropoea) and the wild rue. Shrubs