Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/99

] Miscellaneous wild growths are cardamums, cinnamon, castor-oil, gamboge, camphor, the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) from the bark of which Shan paper and Burmese parabaik are made, thanat in which is wrapped the native-made cheroot. Letpan (Bombax malabaricum), the silk cotton tree, is valued for its down. Characteristic of the dry zone of Upper Burma is the cactus, an introduced

plant which has become naturalized, often used as an impenetrable village fence.

Among wild growing fruit trees may be mentioned the mango, of no great value in its uncultivated state, jack (Autocarpus integrifolia), Zi, the wild plum (Zizyphus Jujuba), Zibyu (Phyllanthus Emblica), Chinese date, tamarind, an introduced tree now widely spread.

In the hills orchids of countless varieties luxuriate in splendid profusion. The Chin Hills are clothed with rich masses of rhododendron, found also less abundantly