SAO Mr. Whitk's Description and Natm-al History 



exhausted Ehi-Kandy will require an equal period of years be*- 

 fore it recovers by rest its ancient vigour. Both limits are so far 

 explicable on natural principles, and appear to be regulated by 

 the exhausting and accumulating cxcitabilities inherent in the 

 soil, and operated upon by a continuance of the same crop. 

 I'he successive decay and fall of the large standard trees, de- 

 stroying one of the most essential conditions of the prosperity of 

 the plantation, is another and evident circumstance determining 

 the period of its duration. 



The reproduction of the same trees, to a size capable of shel- 

 tering the young plants, will give the least measure for the qui- 

 escent state of the ground, and this cannot be less than twenty or 

 thirty years, considering their average growth. 



The barren state of one Ela-Kandy is immediately replaced by 

 the establishment of another on a fresh side, and with similar 

 properties to, the former ; in the choice of which they can never 

 be ^t a. loss, from the great extent of mountain and wood in a 

 state of nature; and, the same operations repeated, the customary 

 routine of crops will follow. 



As the Cardamom plants spring up from scattered seed's dor^^ 

 mant on the spat, or washed thither by rains from the adjacent 

 parts, we do not find any regularity in their disposi-tion, nor is 

 the industry of the natives ever exerted to correct this. Accord- 

 ingly we see them variously grouped ; in some places crowded 

 and extremely luxuriant, in others thin and stunted; some roots 

 sending forth from twenty to thirty stems, two-thirds or three- 

 fourths of which bear; others fron^ eight to twelve, and down to 

 ibur or five. Hence it is difficult to calculate the rate of produce 

 in any one plant. Each stem sends forth from its thickened base 

 from two to four strings or fructiferous panicles; from these issue 

 alternately short clusters bearing from two to three ripe pods. 



The 



