xii APPENDIX. 
that prevailed amongst all the Hindés throughout India in the most remote ages. 
They are enquiring into the nature of the lucrative trade which was carried on from the 
first to the fourteenth century, between the ancient Port of Adulis in Abyssinia and 
that of Hipporos in the island of Ceylon; into the course pursued during the same 
period by vessels of considerable bulk while navigating the only two passages, the one 
near the Island of Rdmiseram, the other near that of Mandr, which lead through the 
ridge of sand banks extending from Ceylon to the southern peninsula of India, and 
generally known amongst Europeans by the name of Adam’s Bridge; into the history of 
the Muhammedans established on the Island of Mandar in the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
turies, who by their armed vessels commanded every approach to those two passages ; into 
that of the pearl and chank fisheries on the coasts of the peninsula of India, and on 
those of the island of Ceylon, from the earliest period to the present times; and into 
that of the female sovereign called Ax1arsanry, who reigned in the early period of the 
history of Ceylon over the north-eastern portion of the island, and who was cele- 
brated in her days for the greatness of her wealth, for her genius and acquirements, and 
for the patronage which she afforded to those who were distinguished for their knowledge 
in science and literature. They are collecting all the information which can be 
obtained relative to the six large tanks or reservoirs of water on the island, which are 
believed to have been constructed in the same age and on the same principles, as the 
lake Meeris in Egypt, and the extensive tanks in the peninsula of India, and which are 
celebrated in the ancient annals of the island for the skill with which they were regu- 
lated, and for the quantity of water with which they could always supply the rice-fields 
in their neighbourhood. They are enquiring into the natural history of the island, 
its zoology and botany, into the character and habits of its elephants, and the practica- 
bility of adapting them to particular descriptions of labour ;* into the growth and 
culture of its cinnamon, of its chdya root (the olderlandia umbellata of Linnxvus,) 
and of its several varieties of the palm; of the ¢alpdt (the coryphwa umbraculifera), 
and the Jaggery (the caroyta urens), in the interior, of the coco-nut (the cocos- 
nucifera), in the southern, and of the palmyra (the borassus flabelliformis) in the 
northern provinces. Into the local limits within which each of these are brought 
to perfection. Into the several uses and manufactures to which they are applied. 
Into the moral and political effects which they have produced upon the situation and 
habits of all the people who are employed in their cultivation, and in the manufacture 
of their produce. Into the practicability of forming a botanical map of the whole 
island. Into the knowledge which the natives of Jaffna have possessed from the earliest 
times, of the male and the female of the palm called the Palmyra palm, or borassus fla- 
belliformis. Into the practical use which they have made of that knowledge. Into 
the manner in which it was first communicated by them to the Dutch botanist Herman, 
* The late Marquis of Lonponpernry, on the suggestion of Sir ALEXANDER JOHNSTON, had determined in 1809 
to establish a Zoological society in Ceylon, on a plan which Sir ALEXANDER had given him, but his lordship’s resig- 
nation soon afterwards, of the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies, prevented this plan from being carried 
into effect. 
