126 THE PALMS OF ASIA. 



Candyan jaggliery is made entirely from this 

 syrup, and will keep good for several years. 

 Some of fine quality is used as a substitute for 

 Chinese sugar candy, and is made expressly for 

 head men. Each cake of jagghery is separately 

 wrapped in a piece of the dried leaf of the 

 plantain, (il/wsa sapientum^ or banana, {Musa 

 pa7Xidisaica,) and then suspended where smoke 

 has free access to it, till required for the market, 

 or for other purposes. The shape and size of 

 a cake of common jagghery is that of the bun of 

 English pastrycooks. The stem, which is per- 

 fectly straight, is used for posts in building 

 houses, and especially in the construction of 

 palings or fences. The outer portion of the 

 trunk being strong and hard, and the inte- 

 rior very spongy, the tree can easily be exca- 

 vated, and then forms useful gutters or channels 

 for the transmission of water. The bud or germ 

 of future foliage at the top of the tree is, like 

 that of many other palms, edible, and more 

 delicate than that of most, the flavoiu: of the 

 tenderer parts bearing a great likeness to that 

 of a fresh filbert. 



Borassus Jlahelli/ormis is another extensively 

 diiFused Indian palm, growing all over that part 

 of Asia and the Asiatic islands. It has many 

 names. In the Sanscrit it is called tala; in 



