230 ' ISLAND OF CEYLON. 



in heaps, to putrify, and after drying them made bread of 

 the farina. 



N. Ne/um^Oj Taratta, Rumph. vi. tab. 63. This elegant 

 plant was the antient Faba Mgyptiaca. The flower is of a beau- 

 tiful rofe color. The fruit is well figured in Gerard^ 1552 ; it is 

 like a poppy cut in two, and with twenty-four round cells, in 

 each of which is a bean. The root was reckoned by the an- 

 tients very delicious, either raw or dreft. The figure is fo ftrik- 

 ing, that the Indians feign that Cupid was firft feen floating 

 down the Ganges on one of them, but the lovely floating flowers 

 would have been a more fuitable couch for the amorous deity. 

 It has alfo a grateful fmell, not unlike cinnamon. The antients 

 feigned that this plant was fliunned by the crocodiles of the 

 Niky on account of the jirickly flalks. The Indians eat the 

 beans. 



OcHN'A. Squarrofa, Burm. Zeyl. tab. Ivi, a very elegant flirub. 



Calophyllum. Inophyllum, Rumpb. ii. tab. 71. This grows to a vaft fize, 

 and is a tree of amazing circumference ; its leaves very large, 

 of a fine green, and yield a delightful fliade. Rbccde, iv. 76, 

 tab. 38, informs us it grows to the height of ninety feet, and 

 the circumference of twelve, and then it bears fruit three 

 hundred years. The flowers fmall, but of a mofl: fragrant 

 odor; the fruit round. The wood is excellent for wheels, and 

 the greater mechanical ufes. Candles are made of the fruit. 

 This magii'fitcnt tree adorns the fliores oi India. 'Vht Mala^ 

 bars call it ronjia-^jiaram. 

 Eleocarpus. Serrata^ iii. tab. loi, Rumphius calls it Ganilri, and fays it 



is one of the talleft trees of India, and proportionably thick. 



The 



