TRAPA BISPINOSA. Linn.
Singhara, . BENG., HIND. Gaunri, . . . . PANJ. Ling, . . . . CHIN. Seringata, . . SANSK. Twoapined water celtrops, Parike gadda, . .
ENG. Pandi gadda, . . „ Pani-phal, . . HIND. Kubjakam, . . . „ Karim-polam, MALEAL. Sringa takamu, .
This grows in both Peninsulas of India, in Bengal, Peshawur, Kashmir, the Panjab up to 5000 feet, in Nepal and China. Its flowers .are small, white, flowering in May and June, fruiting in the cold season. Its fruit is sold in the bazar and eaten by the natives, and in China, the Panjab, Kashmir, and Gujerat it forms an im portant article of food. During the 'loll festival, Its flour is mixed with a dye procured from the flowers of Butea frondosa. The fruit in flavour resembles a chesnut, is eaten both raw and ecoked, especially by the Hindus of N.W. India, as it is phalahar, i.e. may be eaten in their fasts. It abounds so much in starch, that it may be easily separated from the seeds. Ln Kashmir, miles of the lakes and marshes, etc., are covered with this plant. Moorcroft states that in his time in the valley it furnished almost the only food of at least 30,000 people for five months of the year, and that from the Wular lake, ninety-six to one hundred thousand ass-loads were taken annually, the Government drawing 90,000 rupees duty on it, and maharaja Ranjit Singh got more than a lakh of rupees from this plant. In the N.W. Provinces, the cultivation of the species is exten sively carried on by the Dhimar castes, who are everywhere fishermen and palanquin-bearers, who keep boats for planting, weeding, and tending this water crop. The holdings of each cultivator are marked out in the tank by bamboos, and they pay so much an acre for the portion they till. The rent paid for an ordinary tank is about Rs. 100 a year, but Rs. 200 or 300 are paid for a large tank. But the plants cause such an increase of
mud, that a tank is quickly spoiled by them, and the cultivation is not allowed where the tank is required as a water reservoir. When the tanks become dry in May or June, the nuts or bulbs are gathered into a small hole in the deepest part of the tank, and when the rains commence each shoot is broken off, wrapped in a ball of clay, and thrown into the water at different distances. They at once take root and grow rapidly, and cover the surface of the water with their leaves ; their fruit ripens in October. The yield of a standard bigha is 2f man = 205 lbs. 15 oz., which sell at 10 seers the rupee. The deeper the water the better the crop. Green singhara sells at ono maund of 24 seers per rupee, and dry at 18 seers per rupee. Singhara flour sells .at 8 and 10 seers per rupee. The produce of one seer of seed in a good season is about 20 maunds. The water nut is as regularly planted and cultivated under a large surface of water, as fields of wheat or barley on the dry plain.s. The long stalks of the plants reach up to the surface of the water, upon which float their green leaves ; and their pure white flowers expand beautifully among them in the latter part of the afternoon. The nut grows under the water after the flowers decay, and is of a triangular shape, and covered with a tough brown integument adhering strongly to the kernel, which is white, esculent, and of a fine cartilagin ous texture. The nuts are carried often upon bullocks' backs two or three hundred miles to market. They ripen in the latter end of the rains, or in September ; and aro eatable till the end of November.—Roxburgh; rage; Sleeman's Indian Official, p. 102; Powell; Stewart.