146 BOTANY OF INDIA. 



quired two men to embrace it."* Lindley mentions, when 

 speaking of the productiveness of the orange-tree, that a 

 single tree at St. Michael's has been known to produce 

 20,000 oranges fit for packing, exclusively of the damaged 

 fruit and the waste, which may be calculated at one-third 

 more. "The duty upon oranges is 68,000/. per annum, at 

 the rate of two and sixpence for a package not exceeding 

 five thousand cubic inches. Assuming the cubical con- 

 tents of an orange as ten inches, there are five hundred m 

 each package ; and thus we see that 372,000,000 of this 

 fruit are annually imported, allowing about a dozen per 

 annum to every individual of the population." t 



JEgie Marmdos is a pretty large tree in the mountainous 

 parts^of the Coromandel coa'st, producing a sort of berry of 

 the size of a large apple, which is a wholesome, fragrant, 

 and delicious fruit. Within this fruit are from 10 to 15 

 cells, containing, besides a few seeds, a great quantity of a 

 very tenacious transparent gluten, which may be drawn out 

 in threads of one or two yards in length, and so fine as to 

 be scarcely perceptible to the naked eye ; when dry it is hard 

 and transparent. In the island of Ceylon a perfume is pre- 

 pared from the rind. The wood-apple {Feronia elephantum) 

 is another fruit, the pulp of which is universally eaten on 

 the Coromandel coast, according to Roxburgh, though Forbes 

 savs it is acid, full of seeds, and only eaten by the poorer 

 natives. Externally it is circular, hard, and woody, and 

 about the size of an orange, with the smell of a mellow ap- 

 ple. The tree is a large beautiful evergreen, bearing at the 

 same time blossoms and fruit, the latter of which hang at 

 the extremity of long slender branches, that bend with their 

 weio-ht. The last plant of the orange family which we shall 

 notice is Bcrs^cra Kanigv, a small tree growing in the 

 mountainous parts of the Circars, but cultivated in gardens 

 for the sake of the leaves. These are used both in a fresh 

 and dried state for mixing with the curries of the natives, 

 of which they form a principal ingredient, and are to be 

 found in every bazar. 



* Library of Entertaining Knowledge, on the authority of Risso, vol. 

 ii. p. ?30. ' 



