448 CARYOTA URENS. Chap. XXVI. 



forest in question has been applied for and refused to several 

 coffee-planters. The land belongs to Government, but there 

 is a devil Kving on it, to which the Coorgs do poojah, and 

 the Commissioner of Mysore has, therefore, been hitherto 

 unwilling to allow it to be occupied. 



There are many other localities equally suited for the 

 cultivation of C succirubra and C. micrantha in Coorg ; the 

 Government will shortly establish a chinchona nm-sery there ; 

 and, with so many energetic and intelligent planters in the 

 district, it will be strange if the growth of this important 

 product is not extended and rendered profitable by private 

 enterprise. A few rows of chinchona-plants ought to be 

 established in the loftiest part of each coffee-clearing ; and 

 every settler should plant them, and encourage the cultiva- 

 tion among the natives, from motives of humanity, as 

 well as with a view to successful commercial speculation. 



We finally left Mercara before dawn, and rode for three 

 miles down the steep ghaut leading to the lower and more 

 extensive valleys of south-eastern Coorg, which we reached 

 as the sun rose. It was a very pleasant ride through the 

 beautiful hill country, with uplands covered with fine forest, 

 and long strips of fertile valley. In the jungles we saw 

 immense clumps of bamboo, which overshadowed the road ; 

 a leafless and thorny Erythrina with crimson flowers ; and a 

 Solanum with a small white flower by the road-side. Here 

 and there we came to open grassy glades, w^hence little foot- 

 paths led through the neighbouring jungle to some secluded 

 hut. The cultivated valleys are covered with rice, and 

 fringed with plantain groves and Caryota urens. 



The Caryota urens is a lofty palm-tree, with large leaves, 

 and the Coorgs draw an immense quantity of toddy fi'om 

 it dm-ing the hot season. The pith of the trunk of old trees 

 is a kind of sago, and is made into bread and gruel by the 

 natives of many parts of India. Humboldt says that the 



