USE OF THE COCOA-NUT TREE. (From the same.) A cocoa-nut planted in the sandy shore of Ceylon, shews its first shoots above the ground after about three months, and at the end of six is fit for transplantation. No particular care is necessary to rear it; planted in a barren soil, and fanned by the bleak winds of the ocean, it seems to gain strength from neglect, and fecundity from exposure: notwithstanding these apparent disadvantages, its hardihood surmounts every obstacle, and at the end of six years it begins to bear fruit -and from that period becomes a valuable source of wealth to the possessor. While it continues young, the fruit, or interior of the nut, affords a palatable and nutritive food to the native. The watery liquid within, which we term milk, is a beverage equally pleasant and cooling, and is agreeable to the palate as invigorating to the body. The juice of the cocoa-nut when mixed with chunam serves to strengthen it, and to increase its adhesive qualities. When older, the cocoa-nut, as it is well known, is used in making curry, and without it, the Cingalese would find himself at a loss for one of the principal ingredients of this his simple, but constant and only food. The nut grown older still, when pressed, yields that oil, which affords almost the only sort of light used in Ceylon; and the nut itself, after the juice is pressed out, is converted into flour, and forms the chief food of the poultry and other domestic animals. a When the tree has grown to a considerable height, one of the sprouts, which forms what is called the flour, is cut off nearly at its base, leaving, however, stump sufficiently long for a Chatty (or earthen vessel) to be attached to it, into which the juices of the tree drop and form the liquor called toddy, which is not only a pleasant beverage in its primary state, but is used in making jaggery (coarse sugar) vinegar and arrack, which, after cinnamon, is the chief article of merchandize in this island. The inside or soft part of the tree is used for fuel, while the more solid external part is converted into rafters, and the natural net work which surrounds the base of the branches, forms sieves for straining medicinal oils, &c.-The boughs which support the fruit are used as brooms, as well as the husk of the shell, which is sometimes converted into brushes for whitewashing, &c.; the shell itself makes fuel, and the fibres of the husk which encloses it, form coir, another most valuable article of exportation. The cabbage is fit for almost every culinary purpose, but particularly for pickling; the root is useful in medicine, and the natives occasionally mix it with betel for chewing. The branches of the tree the natives weave into hedges, and sometimes burn for fuel The cla or leaf is put to a great variety of uses; there are few natives who dwell under any other covering than that which an ola hut affords, and with narrow pathways, occasionally intersected by hedges of the prickly milk bush, and low and thick ramifications of the aloe tree. The party beat about the jungle (for it had this appearance, rather than that of a garden), when by great good fortune it had a glimpse of one of the animals making off with some rapidity. It was first taken for a large grown calf; a misconception very natural, as the sequel will shew, and as by the report of the morning, the party expected to meet with tigers. The appearance of the animal, however, gave a stimulus to the exertions of the gentlemen, who moved forward in the low jungle, surveying every bush, and expecting each instant to hear a tremendous roar, or perhaps to encounter the savage attacks of the animals. Little more search brought the two beasts in full view, when one of them started off, receiving a ball from a gentleman in the side. It went rapidly past two others of the party, and was wounded by a single shot in the flank. These wounds appeared to have produced no decided effect, and a quarter of an hour had elapsed before it was again discovered crouching in a thick plantation of aloe trees. It was here that a few Sepoys and one of the gentlemen advancing within eight paces, brought the beast prostrate on the ground; when, for the first time, considering the indistinct view obtained in the low jungle, during the pursuit, it was found that instead of tigers the objects of the chace were lions of considerable size! Some danger attended the death of this animal, (which was a lioness) as the other party were diametr. opposite to the aloe plantation w the volley was fired into it. balls whistled over their beaus an around them, but happily w bad consequences to any i. 1 The success which atter first hunt, redoubled exert, in, a....d with great management, the pa scoured the bushes in serin the lioness's companion. time passed, and a great dea laborious exertion, before the a° mal was traced by his footste, one of the high belges wi tersected the garden. The j approached within eight y when, by previous concert, twa gentlemen and two sepys i independently, with ent animal moved off immediate y the other side of the henge, az ten minutes more, he was covered lying under an other te groaning with rage and Some pieces were stay: which exasperating haan, ie rus. out, and nobly charged his a-ants, his tail being curled over : • back. In his advance, he w 1992 luted with great coolness several balls from all the ge men, and a few sep ys c party who had come up though within a few yar s object of his attack, be s turned off, it is suj je sed count of being severcy and sprung upon a sejus, ed to the right, with wh grappled, and afterwards is violence of the excrt.. a 5 ground, beyond ham. 1 to the monster. The sepoy was wounded in the left shoulder, but it was hoped that there is no danger of his losing his life. The complete success of the day was justly calculated to excite many pleasing reflections; but after all was concluded, it appeared that a countryman, who attended at a distance unarmed, and of that river with torrents of rain. It was fortunate that their retreat was immediately discovered, or from the number of people now employed in cultivation around this populous town, some would in all probability have fallen victims to their voracity. for his own curiosity, was wound- HISTORY OF THE COCCUS LACCÆ, ed in the thigh by a ball. This accident has of course damped the pleasure of the sport, though it is but just to remark, that before the party entered into the garden, entreaties were used to the curious bystanders to induce them to keep away from the scene of action, and many were sent off by main force, who afterwards returned in defiance of every remonstrance. The animal last killed was a lion, not quite full grown, but strong and powerful in his make; the lioness was in the same proportion. On being brought to the Residency and inspected, these animals were sent to his Highness Futteh Sing at his own request. The appearance of tigers in the iminediate vicinity of Baroda is not common; two only having strayed from the ravines of the river Myhie to the enclosures round the town, within the last fifteen years, but hons have never been seen. Indeed the existence of this species in India has been questioned, though since satisfactorily established. It is conjectured that the hons killed yesterday had wandered out of the deep defiles of the Myhie, about twelve miles from Baroda, in the night, which was unusually dark, and attended throughout in the neighbourhood OR LAC INSECT. By the late Dr. Kerr. (From the same.) The head and trunk of this insect form one uniform, oval, compressed, red body, of the shape and magnitude of a very small louse, consisting of twelve transverse rings; the back is carinate, the sides are sharp and alate; the belly is flat; antennæ, two filiform, truncated, diverging half the length of the body, each sending off two, often three delicate diverging hairs, longer than the antenna; the mouth and eyes could not be seen with a common watch-maker's magnifier. The tail is a little white point, sending off two horizontal hairs as long as the body. Progression is performed by three pair of limbs, half the length of the animal, forming rectangles at the edge of the trunk; the transverse rings of the body are capable of a little motion. I have often observed the birth of those insects, but could never see any with wings, nor could I find any distinction of sexes, unless that trivial difference of the antennæ. Their connubial rites they also kept a secret from me : nature and analogy seem to point out a deficiency in my observa hons, tions, possibly owing to the minuteness of the object, and want of proper glasses. The insect is produced by the parent in the months of November and December; they traverse the branches of the trees upon which they were produced for some time, and then fix themselves upon the succulent extremities of the young branches, sometimes upon the petioles of the leaves, but never on the trunk, or large branches, probably on account of the rigidity of their cuticle, and deficiency of juice. By the middle of January they are all fixed in their proper situations; they appear as plump as before, but shew no other signs of life. The limbs, antennæ, and site of the tail are no longer to be seen around the edges; they are environed with a spisid, sub-pellucid liquid, which seems to glue them to the branch; it is the gradual accumulation of this liquid which forms a strong and complete castle for each insect, and is what is called gum lac, so useful to the arts of men, as well as the preservation of this valuable insect. I had no opportunity of seeing the operations of this insect, from the 25th of January until the 16th of March, when the cells were completely formed over the insect; they had the appearance of an oval, or rather subrotund, smooth red bag without life, about the size of a small cochineal insect, emarginated at the obtuse end, full of a beautiful red liquid, seemingly contained in cellule, as in the albumen ovi. At this time the young insects cannot be dis. tinguished in the fluid. Here again there is a blank in my ob servations; I did not see the insect until November, when the sells and insects were at their ful ize; and we find a vast number of little oblong red bodies, intermixed with the red fluid of the mother; these are the young offspring, each enveloped in its proper membrane; when all the red liquid is expended, they throw o♬ their membranous coverings, and pierce a hole through the vode v ť the mother, and superior part of the cell, and walk off one by ver to a distant part of the branch, leaving their exuviæ behind, w! is that white substance fond m the empty cells of the stick bar. Those insects are the parasi inhabitants of three different trees, viz. 1st. Ficus Religiosa, Beech Pipul, Anglice Banian tree Ficus Bengdensis, in Be Bhur, Anglice Banian tree third is a valuable tree calie! For Pras by the natives The insects fix themelet . close together, and in . hama bers, that I imagine only ese 1 six can have room enot 25 to complete her cell; the others and are eat up by varias ir sme The extreme bran hes n if they were covered w dust, and their sap so m hausted, that they gener.....'s produce no fruit, and the drop, or turn to a dry colour. The insects are t ported, I imagine, ty? they perch upon those be they must carry of a rima those insects mon ter gulates into a viscid, ropy substance, which, hardened in the open air, is similar to the cell of the coccus laccæ. The natives boil this fig milk with oils into a birdlime which will hold peacocks or the largest birds; in the same manner a red medicinal gum is produced from the wounded prass tree, so similar to the gum lac, that it may readily be taken for the same substance; hence it is probable that those insects have little trouble in animalizing the sap of these plants in the formation of their cells. The gum lac is said to be produced from the ber or beyer tree, which is frequent in this country; it is the rhainnus jujuba Linnæi, or jujube tree; I will not deny the fact, but what has been shewn to me as such, was a substance very different from the lac: there is a fungous excrescence frequently grows from the small branches of this tree, the little tender granulations of which are at first covered with a red bloom, which soon turns black, and neither contains insects, lac, nor colour, that ever I could find, even with the utmost care in my inquiries. This tree is much frequented by ants, fles, and various insects, which destroy the flowers, lewes and fruit; this mistike has probably led Bontius, father Tachard, and their copiers into error. The lac of this country is principally found upon the unculti. vated mountains on both sides of the Ganges, where bountiful na. ture has produced it in such prodorious abur d'ince, that was the consumption ten times greater the markets might be supplied by this minute insect' The only trouble in procuring the lac, is in breaking down the branches, and carrying the sticks to market; the present price in Dacca is about 12 shillings the hundred weight, and it is brought from the distant country of Asam! The best lac is of a deep red colour; if it is pale and pierced at the top, the value diminishes, because the insects have left their cells, and consequently, they can be of no use as a dye or colour, but probably they are better for varnishes. The insect and its cell has gone under the various names of gum lac, lac tree, in Bengali, lac sand; by the English it is distinguished into,-1. Stick lac; which is the natural state from which all the others are formed;-2. Seed lac, is the cells separated from the sticks;-3. Lump lac, is seed lac liquified by fire, and formed into cakes; 4. Shell lac, is the cells liquified, strained, and formed into thin transparent lamina, in the following manner :-separate the cells from the branches, break them into small pieces, throw them into a tub of water for one day; wash off the red water and dry the cells, and with them fill a cylindrical tube of cotton cloth, two feet long and an inch and a half diameter, tie both ends, turn the bug above a charcoal fire; as the lac liquifies, twist the bag, and when a sufficient quantity has transuded the pores of the cloth, lay it upon a smooth junk of plintun tree (musa paradisiaca Linn.) and with a strip of the plurtain le if draw it into a thin nua, take it of while flexible, for in a minute it will be hard and brittle; the value of shell lac is according to its transparency. |