PERADENIYA, BOTANICAI. GARDEN. 17^^' 



liquid at once g-ushes out. I tasted it and found it 

 cool and perfectly sweet. There also was the Cabbage 

 palm [Ai'eca oleixicia), its young leaves used as a 

 vegetable ; and of course the Cocoa-nut {Cocos 

 nucifeva), which supplies all the wants of the natives;, 

 when green, food and drink ; when ripe it yields oil ; 

 its sap gives toddy and arrack ; the fibrous casing of' 

 the fruit, when woven, makes ropes, nets, and matting ;: 

 the nut-shells, drinking vessels, spoons, etc. ; the 

 plaited leaves serve as plates and dishes, and as- 

 thatch for the cottage ; the dried flower-stalks are 

 used as torches and the large leaf-stalks as garden 

 fences ; the trunk of the tree is used for every possible 

 purpose, from knife handles to door posts; and, hol- 

 lowed out, it forms a canoe or a coffin. 



The garden is tastefully laid out, its beds bursting 

 with a display of brilliant flowers such as are seldom 

 seen together ; then there are clumps of Bamboo, . 

 yellow and green, from half an inch to twelve inches. 

 in diameter, and splendid Fern trees rising to a heiglit 

 of ten and sometimes even twenty feet. Ebony,. 

 Blackwood, Teak, and many other useful trees ; some 

 producing handsome flowers, as the Coral tree 

 {Eurythrina indica), already mentioned in the chaptei' 

 on Southern India ; the Jarool or Bloodwood [Lager- 

 strcemia reginw). a magnificent tree of red wood much. 



