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Pandanus. DIOECIA MONANDRIA, 741 
Pine-apple. 1 have never known this plant cultivated with 
any other view than for fences, nor do I yet know any other 
enn or even variety of this genus. 
The drawing of the Mellore, or bread fruit of the Nicobar 
eds in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches, was 
taken from the ripe fruit brought from those Islands by Colo- 
nel Kyd. From this drawing and description there is every 
reason to think it is the fruit of the female plant of Pandanus 
odoratissimus, The size, from thirty-five to forty feet in 
height, to which it rises on those Islands, is much greater than 
1 ever saw it on the Coromandel coast, or in Orissa, or Ben- 
gal, which, however, is not a matiinions reason to sumake, ita 
different species. 
. Extract of a letter from Colonel Hic dwieka dated ‘Me: 
ritius, November 1811. This plant is of extensive use in most 
parts of the Island, for its leaves, which are employed for 
the purpose of package bags for the transportation of coffee, 
sugar, and grain from one place to another, and for expor- 
tation, Hedge rows, or avenues are formed of it round 
plantations, or along the sides of the many roads which inter- 
sect them; and the leaves, as fast as théy attain maturity 
are cut till the tree arrives at its full growth, when the pro- 
duction of new leaves being slower, and less useful, younger 
plants are resorted to, to supply the wants of the planter. The 
preparation of the leaves for working into matting is simple 
and short. As soon as gathered, the spines on their edges and 
dorsal nerve are stripped off, and the leaf divided into slips 
of the breadth proper for the use they are required for ; this 
Operation is performed with the blade of a common sirnight 
knife, they are then laid in the sun for a few hours to dry ; 
when required for working into mats the slips are passed un- 
der the blade of a knife applied with a moderate pressure to 
remove all asperities on their surface, which gives them a po- 
lish and makes them plain and more convenient to the hands, 
One negro employed in the foregoing preparation, will sup- 
ply slips fast enough to keep eight others at work; and each 
