ee EASTERN HINDOOSTAN. 



This begins oppofite to each end of the ifland, and reaches 

 the edge of the river. It extends northward, oppofite to the 

 weftern end of the ifland, but contra(5ts in breadth as it pafles 

 to the eaflern end. The bound hedge is often defended at 

 certain intervals or openings by fmall redoubts, to interrupt the 

 pioneers employed in cutting a breach through it : Such were 

 thofe in the bound hedge at Tondicherry^ which fo long im- 

 peded the taking of the place, in 1760, by Colonel Coote *. 

 CoMPONEKT These local defences are formed of every thorny tree or 



^llm'^'' cauftic plant of the climate. Palmira trees, or the Borajfusfla- 

 belliformis, are the primary. Thefe are planted to the depth 

 of from thirty to fifty feet. In the interftices of the trees, 

 which are very clofely placed, are confufedly fown or fet, the 

 following plants. Pandanus odoratijjimus^ or wild pine; fee 

 my preceding volume, p. 241 ; CaBus Tuiia, Etiphorbia Tira- 

 culla, or milky hedge. The juice of this is fo cauftic as to 

 fcald not only the human flcin, but the hide of a horfe, on 

 whom it may fall in forcing through this infernal hedge. Several 

 other forts of Euphorbia : Th.t Aloe littoralis oi Koenig, Convol- 

 vulus muricatus, and other Convohuli. The Miinofa cinerea, 

 horrida, injiia, and another, as yet undcfcribed, armed with moft 

 dreadful thorns. The Guiliadina unite their powers ; intermix- 

 ed is the Guil. Bonducella, Guil. Bonduc^ and another not laid be- 

 fore the public, to which Koenig gives the epithet lacinians, 

 which it fully merits. The Calamus rotang, or rattan^ and the 

 Arundo bajnbo-) often aflift in the impenetrability. The laft is 



* Orme's Hift, i, p. loi. ii. p. 665. 



remarked 



