CHAP. III.] 



CURIOUS CLIMBING PLANTS. 



105 



preparatory to the cultivation of coffee. In this craft 

 they are singularly expert, and far surpass the Mala- 

 bar coolies, who assist in the same operations. In 

 steep and mountainous places where the trees have 

 been lashed together by interlacing climbers, the prac- 

 tice is to cut halfway through each stem in succession, 

 till an area of some acres in extent is prepared- for 

 the final overthrow. Then severing some tall group 

 on the eminence, and allowing it in its descent to 

 precipitate itself on those below, the whole expanse 

 is in one moment brought headlong to the ground ; 

 the falling timber forcing down those beneath it by its 

 weight, and dragging those behind to which it is har- 

 nessed by its living attachments. The crash occasioned 

 by this startling operation is so deafeningly loud, that it 

 is audible for miles in the clear and still atmosphere of 

 the hills. 



One monstrous creeping plant called by the Kandyans 

 the Maha-pus-wael, or " Great hollow climber," * has 

 pods, some of which I have seen fully five feet long and 

 six inches broad, with beautiful brown beans, so large 

 that the natives hollow them out, and carry them for 

 tinder-boxes. 



Another climber of less dimensions 2 , but greater luxu- 

 riance, haunts the jungle, and often reaches the tops of 

 the highest trees, whence it suspends large bunches of its 

 yellow flowers, and eventually produces clusters of prickly 

 pods containing greyish-coloured seeds, less than an inch 

 in diameter, which are so strongly coated with silex, that 

 they are said to strike fire like a flint. 



One other curious climber is remarkable for the 

 vigour and vitality of its vegetation, a faculty in which 

 it equals, if it do not surpass, the banyan. This is the 



1 Eiitada pursatha. The same plant, 

 when found in lower situations, where 

 it wants the soil and moisture of the 

 mountains, is so altered in appearance 

 that the natives call it the " heen- 

 pus-wael ; " and even botanists have 

 taken it for a distinct species. The 



beautiful mountain region of Pusi- 

 lawa, now familiar as one of the finest 

 coffee districts in Ceylon, in all pro- 

 bability takes its name from the giant 

 bean, "Pus-waelawa." 

 8 Guilandina Bonduc. 



