788 DIOECIA HEXANDRIA. PhcuillX, 



The mode of extracting' this juice is by removing the low- 

 er leaves and their sheaths, and cutting a notch into the pith 

 of the tree near the top, from thence it issues and is conduct- 

 ed by a small channel made of a bit of the Palmyra tree 

 leaf into a pot suspended to receive it. On the coast of Co- 

 romandel this Palm juice is either drank fresh from the tree, 

 or boiled down into sugar, or fermented for distillation, when 

 it gives out a large portion of ardent spirit commonly called 

 Paria arii/c on the coast of Coromandel. Matts and baskets 

 are made of the leaves. 



The Bengalees call this tree Khujjoor. They also boil 

 the juice into sugar. In the whole Province of Bengal about 

 fifteen thousand maunds, or about a hundred thousand hun- 

 dredweight is made annually. At the age of from seven or 

 ten years, when the trunk of the trees will be about four feet 

 high, they begin to yield juice', and continue productive for 

 twenty or twenty-five years. It is extracted during the cold 

 months of November, December, January, and February ; 

 during which period, each tree is reckoned to yield from 

 one hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty pints of 

 juice, which averages one hundred and eighty pints, every 

 twelve pints or pounds is boiled down to one of Goor or t/a- 

 fjnri, and four of Goor yield one of good powder sugar, so 

 that the average produce of each tree is about seven or 

 eight pounds of sugar annually. 



Another statement presented to me, gives a much larger 

 produce, viz. the average produce of each tree is sixteen 

 pints per day, four of which will yield two pounds of mo- 

 lasses, and forty of molasses will yield twenty-five pounds of 

 brown sugar. The difterence is so great, that I cannot well 

 reconcile them, but am inclined to give most credit to the 

 first. 



Date sugar, as it is here called, is not so much esteemed as 

 cane sug-ar, and sells for about one fourth less. 



