100 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. [PART I. 



that its fruit is not edible. The real durian is not in- 

 digenous to Ceylon, but was brought there by the Portu- 

 guese in the sixteenth century. 1 It has been very recently 

 re-introduced, and is now cultivated successfully. The 

 native name for the Singhalese variety , " Katu-bceda," de- 

 notes the prickles that cover its fruit, which is as large as 

 a coco-nut, and set with thorns each nearly an inch in 

 length. 



The Sterculia fcetida, one of the noblest of the Ceylon 

 forest-trees, produces from the end of its branches 

 large bunches of dark purple flowers of extreme 

 richness and beauty ; but emitting a stench so in- 

 tolerable as richly to entitle it to its very characteristic 

 botanical name. The fruit is equally remarkable, and 

 consists of several crimson cases of the consistency of 

 leather, within which are enclosed a number of black 

 bean-like seeds : these are dispersed by the bursting of 

 their envelope, which opens to liberate them when 

 sufficiently ripened. 



The Moodilla (Barringtania speciosa) is another tree 

 that attracts the eye of the traveller, not less from 

 the remarkably shaped fruit which it bears than from the 

 contrast between its dark glossy leaves and the delicate 

 flowers which they surround. The latter are white, 

 tipped with crimson, but the petals drop off early, and 

 the stamens, of which there are nearly a hundred to 

 each flower, when they fall to the ground might almost 

 be mistaken for painters' brushes. This tree (as its native 

 name implies) loves the shore of the sea, and its large 

 quadrangular fruits, of pyramidal form, being pro- 

 tected by a hard coriaceous covering, are tossed by the 

 waves till they root themselves on the beach. It grows 

 freely at the mouths of the principal rivers on the west 



1 PoBCACCm, in his Isolario, writ- | quei cocomeri, che a Venetia son 

 ten in the sixteenth century, enume- chiamati angurie : in mezo del quale 

 rates the true durian as being then j trouano dentro cinque frutti de sapor 

 amongst the ordinary fruit of Cey- j molto excellente." Lib. iii. p. 188. 

 Ion. "Vi nasce anchora un frutto : Padua, A.D. 1619. 

 detto Duriano, verde et grande come | 



