la 



MALAYAN ISLES. 



TfEKi 



Pines. 



Sandal: 



Manchineel. 



Pliny gives ns a whole chapter on this wood*; he fays it was 

 '< '■Triinco eiiodi materie nigri fplendoris^ ac vel fine arte protinus 

 *' jiicuncU:'' VirgU was miftaken by confining ebony to India^ it 

 was alfo produced in ./Ethiopia. Herodotus (in 'TbaiiaJ tells us 

 that the /Ethiopians paid their tribute every three years in that 

 article to the Perjian kings. It was efteemed the moft valuable 

 tribute after gold and ivory. Pompey had an ebony tree carried 

 before him in his triumph over Mithridates ; yet to this day we 

 have not one to place in our celebrated garden at Kcw. 



The 'Teek\t Te&ona grandis, the pride of the eaftern forefts,. 

 grows in the north and eaft of Sumatra. 



The pines which captain Cook found in the different parts of 

 the fouth feas are common, here, and are called Arou\ they 

 flourifli in a light fandy foil, and are the firft trees that grow on 

 lands deferted by the fea. At page 70, tab. 51, of the firfl: volume 

 of Captain Cook'^ fecond voyage, is fome account of this tree,- 

 which as yet has not been claflically defcribed. 



Sandal \Noo<\ I, Pterocarpus SanioUnuSy both the white and the 

 red, are produced in Sumatra. 



The poifonous Manchineel tree, Hippomane Mancinilla §, is 

 common here, as well as in the Weft Indies., and furnillies a moft 

 •ufeful timber, as it refifts the attacks of the Termes, or white 

 ants ; it is alfo valuable in works of ornament, the wood being 

 finely veined ; but the juice is fo noxious, that if any falls on the 

 eyes it will occafion a blindnefs of many days, and the very drop- 



* Lib. xii. c. 4. 



X Ibid. vol. i. p. 140. 



f Outlines of the Globe, vol. i. p. 81. tab. iv. 

 § Catefty, vol. i. p. 95. 



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