AN EXCURSION. 



mental shrubbery, ran across the middle of the grove, 

 and here and there were placed comfortable garden 

 seats for the convenience of weary visitors. There 

 were numerous species of palms, of diverse shape and 

 size, but we content ourselves with noticing such as are 

 useful to us. 



SagO Palm. (Sagus farinifera} It is a native of 

 the Peninsula of Malacca, and the Malay Islands, Wallace, 

 a great naturalist and traveller, describes it thus : "The 

 sago tree is a palm, thicker and larger than the cocoanut 

 tree, although rarely so tall, and having immense pinnate 

 spiny leaves, which completely cover the trunk till it is 

 many years old. It has a creeping root stem,, like the 

 Nipa palm, and when about ten or fifteen years of age 

 sends up an immense terminal spike of flowers, after 

 which the tree dies. It grows in swamps or in 

 swampy hollows of the rocky slopes of hills, where 

 it seems to thrive equally well as when exposed to the 

 influx of salt or brackish water. " The pith of the tree 

 yields the sago of commerce, which is the staff of life to 

 the inhabitants of many of the Malay Islands, and which 

 is so useful to mankind in general. Its mode of prepara^ 

 tion is as follows ; "When Sago is to.be made, a full- 

 grown tree is selected just before it is going to flower. 

 It is cut down close to the ground, the leaves and leaf 

 stalks cleared away, and broad strips of the bark taken off 

 the upper side of the trunk. This exposes the pithy 

 matter, which is of a rusty colour near the bottom of 

 the tree, but, higher up, pure white, about as hard a$ ^ 



