GROWTH OF THE SAGO PAUF. 357 



sort of white rime, as if powdered lime had been dusted over 

 them. The IMalays call this stage the Maapidih, i.e. the tree 

 grows white. From the apex of the stem shoots forth at this stage 

 the flower-stalk, which at a later period crowns the tree like an 

 immense antler, bearing thousands of flowers, which are replaced 

 afterwards by spherical fruit covered with scales. When the 

 flower- stalk attains a length of one foot, the tree has entered 

 that stage which thQ Malays term Saga hont'mg, that is with 

 young. A small quantity of the starch is now taken up for the 

 formation of the woody fibre of the flower-stalks. Finally 

 arrives the period which the Malays term Majang bara, i. e. the 

 young comes forth. The flower-stalk at the apex of the stem 

 now attains a length of four feet, but the spathes out of which 

 the floral branches are to project, are not yet opened. The tree 

 may pass through these three stages without any great reduction 

 of the store of starch ; but at the next stage, termed Batsja 

 Bang, i.e. the shoot branches out, when the flower-stalk 

 measures from six to ten feet in height, and ten feet in circum- 

 ference, the greater portion of the starch is formed into thick 

 woody fibre, and still more is this the case in the two last stages 

 of the flower {Siriboa) and fruit (Bahoa), when there remains 

 DO longer any starch. A healthy tree produces between 400 

 and 800 lbs. of starch (the sago prepared from this is not sent 

 to the European markets, but is consumed in the country). 

 The palm, which produces the chief portion of the sago con- 

 sumed in Europe, is the Metroxylon laeve Mart, of Malacca, the 

 wdld stems of which give four to five and a half picols of sago, 

 whilst two to three picols only are obtained from those cultivated 

 in gardens. 



APPENDIX C (page 54). 



VEGETABLE STATICS, LONDON, 1727. 



The experiments made by Hales on the motion of the sap in 

 vegetables, may be looked upon as the best model for all times 

 of the most perfect method of investigation. That they are 

 still at the present day unsurpassed in vegetable physiology may, 

 perhaps, be attributed to the circumstance of their dating from 



