336 APPENDIX B. 



grows white. From the apex of the stem shoots forth at this 

 stage the flower-stalk, which at a later period crowns the tree like 

 an immense antler, bearing thousands of flowers, which are re- 

 placed afterwards by spherical fruit covered with scales. "When 

 the flower-stalk attains a length of one foot, the tree has entered 

 that stage which the Malays term Saga bonting, that is with 

 young. A small quantity of the starch is now taken up for the 

 formation of the woody fibre of the flower-stalks. Finally arrives 

 the period which the Malays term Majang bara, i. e. the young 

 comes forth. The flower-stalk at the apex of the stem now at- 

 tains a length of four feet, but the spathes out of which the floral 

 branches are to project, are not yet opened. The tree may pass 

 through these three stages without any great reduction of the store 

 of starch ; but at the next stage, termed Batsja Bang, i. e. the 

 shoot branches out, when the flower stalk measures from six to 

 tea feet in height, and ten feet in circumference, the greater por- 

 tion of the starch is formed into thick woody fibre, and still more 

 is this the case in the two last stages of the flower (Siriboa) and 

 fruit (Bahoa), when there remains no longer any starch. A healthy 

 tree produces between 400 and 800 Ibs. of starch (the sago pre- 

 pared from this is not sent to the European markets, but is con- 

 sumed in the country). The palm, which produces the chief por- 

 tion of the sago consumed in Europe, is the Metroxylon laeve 

 Mart, of Malacca, 'the wild stems of which give four to five and a 

 half picols of sago, whilst two to three picols only are obtained 

 from those cultivated in gardens. 



APPENDIX (page 66). 



VEGETABLE STATICS, LONDON, 1727. 



The experiments made by Hales on the motion of the sap in 

 vegetables, may be looked upon as the best model for all times of 

 the most perfect method of investigation. That they are still at 

 the present day unsurpassed in vegetable physiology may, per- 

 haps, be attributed to the circumstance of their dating from the 

 age of Newton. They deserve a place in every work treating of 

 the physiology of plants. 



In the beginning of his work Hales describes the experiments 

 made by him on the motion of the sap in vegetables arising from 

 the exhalation from their surface. These experiments were made 

 with leafy branches, plants cut off from the roots, and others still 

 retaining their roots. 



The force of the pressure of a column of water, both with and 

 without the cooperation of exhalation, was shown by the follow- 

 ing experiment. 



