Of rice there are four kinds, three of which are cultivated on the mountains, and do not require continual inundation. That this nutritious and wholesome article is not fuperabundant in the kingdom of Candy, arifes from the imperfections of its government. If its growth were properly encouraged, this country, inftead of having recourfe to Bengal for fupplies, might be enabled to export large quantities of this grain.

The cocoa trees are very numerous within the district fubject to the British government, and from whence the coafts of Malabar and Coromandel are fupplied with fpirits diftilled from their fruit. In Candy this tree cannot be cultivated, from the great number of ele. phants which inhabit the woods, and are forbidden to be deftroyed by order of the king.

The areka tree is seen in every part of the island, and a clandeftine trade is carried on with the Candian country, in the nuts which it yields. Thefe, with fuch as are produced in the part fubordinate to the British government, form a confiderable branch of commerce.

This tree finds an enemy in the government of Candy, which dif. courages its cultivation; but the foil is fo favourable to its growth, that it may be faid to flourish, in

VOL. 2.

fpite of the elephant that tramples on it, and man who neglects to preferve it.

The coffee which is produced here, approaches in flavour to that of Moka.

Though the quantity of sugar. cane planted at Calitura is very fmall, and is only employed to procure fpirits, it is fufficient to prove, that, if this neceffary article were encouraged, it might be produced in fufficient quantities to fupply the demands of the ifland, and fuperfede the neceffity of importing it from Bengal and China. The natives, however, draw a fmall portion of faccharine juice from the buds of the tree called kitoul (the carriotta of Linnæus), the pith of which is but little inferior to the age of the eaftern ifles.

The pepper plant flourishes here; but its fruit is not equal to that of the Moluccas. At the fame time it may be confidered as an important article of commerce.

The cardamum grows only at Matura, and a few other parts; and is inferior to that which is produ. ced on the coaft.

Though the cultivation of the fweet potatoes is very fimple, the quantity produced is not more than fufficient for home confumption.

The margora or agederac (melia of Flora Zeylanica) is confidered as one of the most valuable plants that Ceylon can boaft of. It is esteemed as an admirable fuccedaneum for the * B quin.

quinquina; and its leaves are fo obnoxious to moths and deftructive infects, that they will preferve woollen cloths, linen, and books, from being infefted by them.

Fruit trees are in great abund ance, though their produce is not in general admired by Europeans, who are accustomed to thofe of a fuperior flavour. The fruit of Ceylon is however, in general, fuperior to that of the Peninfula, particularly its lemons, oranges, and pompel-mos.

The goraka is a pulpy fruit, whofe flavour is blended with an agreeable acid. It is of a round fhape, and deeply indented. The peal is em ployed as a culinary article by the natives. The tree that bears it, exudes a yellowish rafin, which produces a tolerable varnish. This tree has been generally confounded with the gockat tree, that diftills the gambuge, and from which feveral hundred weight of this gum might be annually drawn. There is alfo a great variety of trees which grow fpontaneously in the woods: they bear different fruits, though generally more or lefs of an acid tafte, and much used by the people of the country in the confectionary, which forms fuch an important article in their entertain

ments.

The nux vomica, which muft be ranked among the poisonous plants, is a native of this ifland; but is applied to no use whatever. In the fame clafs may be placed the palma chrifti, from whence the caftor oil is extracted; which forms a fmall article of trade.

The bané is a kind of pulfe, and might be rendered an article of very great utility. The ftem of this plant is from three feet and a half to four feet in length, and furnishes a flax, which is twifted into a long rope. It is particularly employed

by fishermen for their nets and lines, from the extraordinary quality it poffeffes of never decaying or rot. ting in water. It appears to be deficient in elafticity; but that may arife from its never having been fufficiently fteeped. From fome experiments which have been made, its ftrength appears to be in the proportion of five to four with European cordage.

The diftrict of Matura produces fix different kinds of frub, on which infects depofe the laca. The defcription of this infect by Roxburgh, in the second volume of Afiatic Refearches, is very correct. The Ceylon laca is the fame as that which is found in Pegu: but, though it is found in great abund. ance on the fhrubs where it is depofed, the inhabitants collect no more than is neceffary for their par ticular ufe.

The plantations of cinnamon abound with a plant, which delicacy forbids us to defcribe. It is called baudura by the Cingalefe, and has received the fcientific denomination of nefeuthes diftillatoria by the botanists. It is inaccurate. ly reprefented by Burman, and in Pennant's View of Hindustân. It has been equally confidered and examined by the antiquarian, the man of letters, and the botanist. It flourishes beneath the fhade of the cinnamon tree, whofe culture it interrupts.

The trees and plants in Ceylon are very numerous. In the district of Columbo alone, there are not lefs than three hundred fpecies. Many of them appear in the very inadequate catalogue of Palus Hermanus; from whence they have been tranfferred, without any diftinctive de fcription, to the Thefaurus Zeylani cus of Burman, and fo on to the Flora Zeylanica of Linnæus, and other botanical works. Indeed,

of

of one hundred Cingalefe names given by Hermanus, and adopted by Burman and Linnæus, there are not ten in ufe among the natives; and the reft are almost unintelligibly rendered in the German orthography.

Of the timber used in domestic articles, &c. thirty-nine of the most remarkable fpecies have been collected. Among them the kaloumidirié is diftinguished by very fine black and yellowish veins; the Europeans call it caleminder. The kad bumbirié has the fame ftreaks as the former, but not quite fo large. Very beautiful articles of furniture are made of them both.

There are, alfo, the fatin-wood, called bourouth; the tekéa, or teak, employed for mafts, and every kind of hipwright's and carpenter's work; the jack, one of the breadfruit trees, the wood of which, when fresh, is of a beautiful yellow, but changes in the course of time to a reddish hue; and the nedoun, or window, which is very strong. The two laft are employed in furniture and domeftic uses. To thefe may be added, the nuga gaba, the ebony,

&c.

The elephant muft take the lead among the quadrupeds in every part of the world which it inhabits. In Ceylon there are two fpecies; the one called alleia, which has no teeth, or at least very fmall ones; and the other called aeta, which has teeth of a confiderable length. In the interior parts of the inland they are very numerous; and there are a fufficient number of them in the English poffeffions, to do confiderable mifchief to every kind of agriculture.

The royal tiger is not an inhabitant of this ifland; but the leopard is very common, and fome of them have been taken that measured five feet is length.

There are two kinds of wild cat, one of which is not generally known, or, at leaft, has been very imperfectly defcribed.

The wild buffalo is found in the forefts, and is as furious as that of Bengal.

The wild boar is equally danger ous with the buffalo, and the woods alfo abound with them.

There is the axis, or Ganges deer, and a ftag whofe colour is grey, tinged with a fhade of red. It bears a greater resemblance to the hart of Corfica, than to any other of its clafs.

Of monkeys, there are three peculiar kinds, with long tails, and pouches under the chin. The hair of one is of a reddish hue, and that of the other two is very long: the one is white, and the other black; but they all of them have long beards, which spread over their cheeks. They are very fagacious, well-tempered, and tractable, as well as full of trick and amufing playfulness.

The floth is not very common; it is from feven to eight inches in length, and is born with a thick covering of hair.

The pangotin is very common in Ceylon, and called kabal-qaēïa. It is accurately defcribed by feve ral naturalifts; but the print of it, in Buffon, is ill-defigned. It is there reprefented as walking on its fore-feet, in common with other quadrupeds; whereas it actually walks on the metatarfus, turning the toes downwards. This animal can never be preferved alive, from the impracticability of providing a fufficient quantity of ants (which are its only food) to fuftain it.

There is alfo the viverra ichneu

mon, which, by the Europeans, is called mongoos. It has been generally believed that this animal in ftinctively applies to the medicinal * B 2

aid

aid of a certain plant, which acts as a counter-poifon, when it has been bit by a ferpent. The natives, however, are not acquainted with any plant that poffeffes this falutary quality. It is, nevertheless, afferted by them, that the mongoos has been feen to attack the cobra di capello; when, though feverely bitten, it has killed the ferpent, and eaten a part of it, without any vifible effects of poifon.

Offquirrels there are two fpecies. One, which is called laéna, has a red nofe quite flat, and long black tail, which is only found in the woods; the other, called dandu laéna, with yellow longitudinal freaks, frequents gardens, where it deftroys every kind of fruit.

The hares are large, hut inferior, as a food, to thofe of Europe.There are otters, but they are very rare, and feldom feen. The porcupine is to be found every where in the woods, and may be readily tamed into all the familiarity of a domeftic animal.

There are two fpecies of rats, which infeft the houfe and the gar den one of them is called the musk-rat, which is fo well known in the Peninfula.

There is one of four fpecies of bats known here, which is called the flying fox; its French name is roulette: it is well known in the Peninfula, and feeds only on fruit.

The birds are among the most beautiful productions of this ifland; but their prevailing haunts are in the eastern parts: the number of them is comparatively fmall in the vicinity of Columbo. Not more than thirty fpecies of them have been afcertained fince the English have become its inhabit. ants. Among these are the pelican, the flamand, the great and fmall Greek pigeon, the rollieu of Mindanao of Briffon; a beautiful

cuckoo, with variegated plumage, called kouroulangfia; the maynat; two fly-catchers, with two long feathers in the tail, the one with a black head and white body, the other with a blue head and reddish back; and an abundance of woodpeckers, with golden plumage.

Among the fb which have yet been obferved, and are not gene. rally, if at all, known, is a ray, with a projecting fnout like that of a dog, and of a brown colour, with a green tinge on the upper fide. The fishermen appear to have a knowledge of the cramp-fif.

The number of ferpents is very great; and the larger part of them are of a poifonous nature; nor can they be generally known, as none of them exactly correfpond with the prints of Ruffel.

The cobra di capello, which is a well-known and most formidable reptile, is a native of Ceylon. It has a broad neck, and a mark of dark brown on the forehead; which, when viewed in front, has the appearance of a pair of fpectacles; but, being regarded from behind, is like the head of a cat. Its back is of a grey colour, and has fome dufky fpots on the belly. No other kind of this ferpent has been feen here. The natives confider it as an object of veneration, and do not fuffer it to be deftroyed. It loves to inhabit dilapidated buildings.

The largeft of all the ferpents is the pimpboura. The writer of this fhort memoir has feen one preferved in fpirits, of eight feet and an half in length, and thirteen inches in circumference, which was quite young. It is this fpecies that is accufed of fwallowing bullocks and buffaloes. But, however that may be, the Cingalefe affert, in the moft pofitive manner, that there are ferpents which are ten inches in diameter, and that fome

have been taken with a hog in their belly. Nay, it was declared with equal folemnity, that one of them had been opened, in which was found the horn of a buffalo.

The moft curious ferpent of this ifland is the potanga, which is faid to grow to a moft enormous fize. One of them, when only four feet and an half in length, and half an inch in diameter, had feven young ones in it. These two fpecies are remarkable for two fhort, thick prickles, contiguous to the anus. There is, alfo, the depatnaïa, a third kind of the anguis of Linnæus. Some have defcribed it as poffeff ing two heads. It appears to confider its tail as a defence, from the violence of its motion whenever it is attacked.

The fishermen caught an extraor dinary ferpent fome time fince at fea, of the length of firty-feven inches and an half, of which there does not appear to be any defcription in any work of natural hiftory; though Pennant's View of Hinduftân contains an account of one that bears fome fmall refemblance to it.

Of the lizard tribe, the crocodile is the most confiderable: it is the inhabitant of all the lakes and rivers in Ceylon; but is feldom feen in the vicinity of the fea. There are two kinds of laguna; one of them is feven feet long, and is fuppofed to be the fame as that which is fo well known on the coaft of Coromandel. There is alfo a finall lizard with a prickly back, like the camelion: to which may be added a fall fpotted lizard, which, from its measured and tuneful cry, has acquired the name of the finging lizard; and the real camelion. The toads are not of a large fize, like thofe of Bombay.

The infects are innumerable. The genus of the fearabeus is the

most abundant, but that of the mautis of Linnæus is the inoft curious. The thapes it produces are very va rious and extraordinary. One of them, of which Colonel Agnew made a drawing, is called the animated leaf, from the refemblance of its wings to the leaf of a tree.

There are five fpecies of the gol den-coloured coreinelle of Linnæus. A grasshopper, with black, prickly, tuberculous horns, terminated by two large yellow knobs..

Afpider, whofe venom and bite is as potent and dangerous as thofe of a ferpent; fortunately, this infect is very rare.

A black hairy Scorpion, about four inches in length.

Of butterflies there are about twenty fpecies, fome of which are

well known.

The phalena, a species of which is to be found in a treatise published in France on foreign butterflies.

The termes, or what is called the white ant, infefts this ifland, as well as the Peninfula.

Laftly, There are a great number of ticks found on different animals, fuch as the rat liguana, water-birds, pangolin, &c. The tick found on the rat is remarkable for the extraordinary manner in which it moves, having its mouth and belly turned upwards.

The fhore of Trincomalée abounds in bells; but they are all mentioned in Rumplici's work on Conchology.

With refpect to pearls, it may be obferved, that the fheil in which they are found is a mytilus, and not an oyster. The defeription of it is very correctly given in the Afiatic Refearches. All banks are

not equally productive of the pearl; for though the theils in which it is generally found are very plentifuļ on the Chilau banks, there is very feldom found a fingle pearl in them

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