398 ILLUSTRATION OF THE BOTANY OF [ Palmacee. 
many other species, as of the Neebong and Pacoo beendoo in Sumatra (Marsden, p. 77) ; 
though in others the juices are too astringent to render them fit for this purpose. The 
sap of many species being very abundant, at the same time that it is mild, demulcent, 
and saccharine, is collected by the natives of different countries, by wounding the 
spathe, and drank in its recent state as a refreshing beverage : such is the case 
with the sap of Cocos nucifera, Arenga saccharifera, Caryota urens, Borassus flabelli- 
formis, Phenix sylvestris, and others, as well as with what is called the milk of the 
cocoa-nut. The saccharine principle is, however, so abundant in the sap of some 
species, that boiled down, it yields an excellent sugar, not to be distinguished from 
that of the cane, but which is commonly called jaggery, a name derived probably from 
the same source as sugar. Arenga saccharifera is in Java and Baleya employed in 
making ‘sugar ; its sap is boiled down to syrup, and then allowed to concrete, but it 
always retains some degree of moisture; the best is of a yellowish colour, but the 
inferior kinds, called saccharum nigrum, which are blackish-coloured, are commonly 
mixed with the muscovados of the cane. The sap of the cocoa-nut and of Caryota 
urens are also, in some places, boiled down for a similar product ; but Phenix sylvestris 
is the only one much employed for this purpose in India, as on the Coromandel coast, 
in Guzerat, and in considerable quantities, especially of late years, in Bengal, whence 
it has been imported into England. Dr, Roxburgh describes the juice as being extracted 
in the cold weather, and that each tree yields from 120 to 240 pints ; every twelve pints 
or pounds is boiled down to one of goor or Jagari, and eve 
powder sugar, so that the average produce of each tre 
of sugar annually. Date sugar, Dr. Roxburgh adds, 
sugar, and sells for about one-fourth less; he states that at the time when he wrote, a 
hundred thousand hundred-weight of date sugar was 
made annually in Bengal. 
The secretion of sugar being so abundant in the sap of some of these Palms, it would 
be interesting to ascertain to what Purpose it is ap 
plied in the economy of the plant, 
whether going to its nourishment, or to the formation of other secretions, similar in nature, 
as, for instance, fecula, which is stored up in such large quantities in many of them, and 
in some of the same species which yield sugar. Sago meal, is obtained chiefly from 
Sagus Rumphii (Sagus spinosus, Rumph. i. p. 75), and is the kind which the Malays 
are said to prefer; granulated sago is made from Sagus (inermis, Roxb.) levis, 
Rumph. i. p. 76. Pearl sago is said to be granulated and bleached 
where it is brought from the islands in which it is grown. | 
Arenga saccharifera (Saguerus Rumphii, 
of Marsden, and Ejoo of the Malays, 
black fibres for cables and cordage, 
ry four of goor yields one of good 
e is about seven or eight pounds 
is not so much esteemed as cane 
at Singapore, 
Roxb.), Gomuto of Rumphius, i, t. 13, Anou 
also yields sago, as well as Sugar, palm-wine, and 
all of which makes it highly valuable, and desirable 
for cultivation in low situations, near the coasts of India. Caryota urens yields, in 
India, farina, equal to the best sago (Roxb.); and Phenivr Sarinifera, a dwarf species 
of the genus found on sandy hills, at a short distance from the sea ne 
ar Coringa, 
also contains farina in its stem, which is used as food by 
the natives in times of 
famine, 
The 
