z^S I S L A N D O F C E "Y I. N, 



and befides are three lelTer nuts, of the fize of a goofe's cgg» 

 containing when young a foft kernel, when old, a very palatable 

 liquor. A bread, or. cake is made from the kernel, which re- 

 quires a confiderable preparation: and .a liquor greatly in ufe 

 called Suf^af is CKtraded from the body, with the ufual procefs 

 of tapping the tree. From -that again is got, by boiling, a rich 

 fyrup, and a fort of fugar. The timber is elegantly veined, 

 and ftriated, and often made into.cheft3. 



The afcent to the furamit of the tree is performed by a man, 

 who attains the height by ihe afPiftance of a girdle, which fur- 

 rounds his waiil and the tree ; his knees are fixed againfl the 

 body, and he gains the height by alternately removing the gir- 

 dle, which fupports his body, and then with his knees gaining 

 a new advance-: A moft dangerous operation; for fliould the 

 girdle break, his life is loll:. 



Phoenix. DaByJifera has been fpoken of before in vol. vi. p. 366. 410. 



and vol. vii. p. 209, of the M.S. outlines. It is fo amply treated 

 cf by the learned Kmnpfer, in his Aman. Exotica, page 661, 

 that it is difiicult to give any thing in addition. It grows not 

 , only in Ceylon, but in many parts of the peninfula of India, and 



is called (in Ceylon at left) Indi and Mahaindi. As the plenty 

 and harvell of India confifts in fuccefs of the palm trees, it is 

 fuppofed by Linnaus that India might derive its name from that 

 which thefe trees bear in that country. It muft be the gene- 

 rical name, for Mr. Ives fays that the dates do not ripen to per- 

 fedlion in the peninftda of India. 



€6iiypMA. The beautiful Corypha Umhraculifera, i. tab. 8, is the moft 



elegant fpecies of the palm kind, from the regular expanfe of 



the 



