302 Mr. R. Terapleton's Memoir 



XLIV. Memoir on the Genus Cermatia and some other 

 exotic Annulosa {in a Letter addressed to the Secretary). 

 By R. Templeton, Esq,, R.A. 



[Read 3 October, 1842.] 



(Plates XVI. and XVII.) 



Colombo (Ceylon), 

 May 19th, 1842. 

 My dear Westwood, 

 I SEND to you, " per Tigris," a present for the Entomological 

 Society, which I hope will prove an acceptable one, though you 

 may be at first rather surprised to find that it is not a present 

 of insects. This it is. — In this country, along the marshy banks 

 of the large rivers, grows a large handsome tree, named Sonne- 

 ratia acida by the younger Linnaeus ; its roots spread far and wide 

 through the soft moist earth, and at various distances along send 

 up most extraordinary long spindle-shaped excrescences four or 

 five feet above the surface. Of these Sir James Edward Smith 

 remarks : — ■" What those horn-shaped excrescences are, which 

 occupy the soil at some distance from the base of the tree, from 

 a span to a foot in length, and of a corky substance, as described 

 by Rumphius, we can offer no conjecture." Most curious things 

 they are, they all spring very narrow from the root, expand as 

 they rise, and then become gradually attenuated, occasionally 

 forking but never throwing out shoots or leaves, or in any respect 

 resembling the parent root or wood. They are firm and close in 

 their texture, nearly devoid of fibrous structure, and take a mode- 

 rate polish when cut with a sharp instrument ; but for lining insect 

 boxes and making setting boards, they have no equal in the world, 

 the finest pin passes in with delightful ease and smoothness, and 

 is held firmly and tightly, so that there is no risk of the insects 

 becoming disengaged : with a fine saw I form them into little 

 boards and then smooth them with a sharp case-knife, but the 

 London veneering mills would turn them out fit for immediate 

 use, without any necessity for more than a little touch of fine 

 glass paper. Some of my pigmy boards are two feet long by 

 three and a half inches wide, which is more than suflScient for our 

 purpose, and to me they have proved a vast acquisition. The 

 natives call them " Kirilimow," the latter word signifying " root." 

 The above may interest some of your botanical friends. 



My professional engagements have prevented my doing more 

 than making myself acquainted with the habitats of insects I 



