CHAP. III.] THE KUMBUK. 99 



framework, the interstices of which retain the materials 

 that compose the roadway. 1 



The Kumbuk of the Singhalese (called by the Tamils 

 Maratha-maram) 2 is one of the noblest and most widely 

 distributed trees in the island ; it delights in the banks 

 of rivers and moist borders of tanks and canals ; it 

 overshadows the stream of the Mahawelli-ganga, almost 

 from Kandy to the sea ; and it stretches its great arms 

 above the stitt water of the lakes on the eastern side of 

 the island. 



One venerable patriarch of this species, which grows 

 at Mutwal, within three miles of Colombo, towers to so 

 great a height above the surrounding forests of coco- 

 nut palms, that it serves as a landmark for the native 

 boatmen, and is discernible from Negombo, more than 

 twenty miles distant. The circumference of its stem, as 

 measured by Mr. W. Ferguson, in 1850, was forty-five 

 feet close to the earth, and seven yards at twelve feet 

 above the ground. The timber, which is durable, is 

 applied to the carving of idols for the temples, besides 

 being extensively used for less dignified purposes ; but 

 it is chiefiy prized for the bark, which is sold as a 

 medicine, and, in addition to yielding a black dye, it is 

 so charged with calcareous matter that its ashes, when 

 burnt, afford a substitute for the lime that the natives 

 chew with their betel. 



Some of the trees found in the forests of the interior 

 are remarkable for the curious forms in which they 

 produce their seeds. One of these, that sometimes 

 grows to the height of one hundred feet without throwing 

 out a single branch, has been confounded with the durian 

 of the Eastern Archipelago, or supposed to be an allied 

 species 3 , but it differs from it in the important particular 



1 Mr. Ferguson, of the Surveyor- 

 General's Department, assures me 

 that he once measured the root^of a 

 small wild fig-tree, growing in a 

 patena at Hewahette, and found it 



upwards of 140 feet in length, whilst 

 the tree itself was not 30 feet high. 



Pentaptera tomentosa (Ro.r.). 

 3 It is the Cidlenia exceha of 

 WIGHT'S Iconcs, &c. (761-2). 



2 



