UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 245 



sorts of household furniture. By piercing the 

 joints they are often converted into water- 

 pipes, and they make excellent poles by which 

 the porters carry casks, bales, and palanquins. 

 In the island of Java, a sort of palanquin is 

 formed of bamboos, resembling a small house 

 in shape, and called a clooly. In short there 

 are few plants which have such a variety of 

 uses. 



2nd. This last summer is said by every one 

 to have been remarkable for the quantity of seed 

 produced by almost all plants ; and acorns were 

 particularly plentiful. Some were gathered for 

 the purpose of sowing; but an immense number 

 remained under the oak trees in the lawn, till 

 within these few days, when they all disap- 

 peared, and what fell from the trees in the 

 course of one day, had vanished before the 

 next. After much puzzling about what could 

 have become of them, Wentworth discovered 

 that the sheep eat them ; he caught them in the 

 act to-day. He also observed that chaffinches 

 and other birds eat beech-masts but I do not 

 wonder at that, for I think them excellent; and 

 my aunt tells me that on some parts of the con- 

 tinent they are very much used as food by the 

 poor inhabitants. The oil which is previously 

 expressed from them is of the finest quality ; and 



Y3 



