Chap. III.] 



CURIOUS CLLMBING PLANTS. 



105 



trees, preparatory to the cultivation of coffee. In this 

 craft they are singularly expert, and far surpass the 

 Malabar coohes, who assist in the same operations. 

 In steep and mountainous places Avhere the trees have 

 been thus lashed together by the interlacing climbers, 

 the practice is to cut halfway through each stem in 

 succession, till an area of some acres in extent is pre- 

 pared for the final overthrow. Then severing some 

 tall group on the eminence, and allowing it in its 

 descent to precipitate itself on those below, the whole 

 expanse is in one moment brought headlong to the 

 ground ; the falling timber forcing down those beneath 

 it by its weight, and di^agging those behind to which it 

 is harnessed by its Hving attachments. The crash occa- 

 sioned by this starthng operation is so deafeningly loud, 

 that it is audible for two or three miles in the clear and 

 still atmosphere of the hills. 



One monstrous creeping plant called by the Kandyans 

 the Maha-pus-wael, or " Great hollow chmber," ^ has 

 pods, some of which I have seen fully five feet long and 

 six inches broad, w^ith beautiful brown beans, so larire 

 that the natives lioUow them out, and carry them as 

 tinder-boxes. 



Another chmber of less dimensions ^, but greater luxu- 

 riance, haunts the jungle, and often reaches the tops of 

 the highest trees, whence it suspends large bunches of its 

 yeUow flowers, and eventually produces clusters of prickly 

 ]^ods containing greyish-coloured seeds, less than an inch 

 in diameter, which are so strongly coated with silex, that 

 they are said to strike fire hke a flint. 



One other curious chmber is remarkable for the 

 vigour and vitahty of its vegetation, a faculty in which 

 it equals, if it do not surpass, the banyan. This is the 



• Entada purscetha. The same plant, 

 when found in lower situations, where 

 it wants the soil and nioistm-e of the 

 mountains, is so altered in appearance 

 that the natives call it the *'heen- 

 pus-wael ; " and even botanists have 

 taken it for. a distinct species. The 



beaiitifid mountain region of Pusi- 

 lawa, now familiar as one of the finest 

 coftee districts in Ceylon, in all pro- 

 bability takes its name from the giant 

 bean, " Pus-waelawa." 

 ^ (luilandina P>ondu(\ 



