108 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



[PART I. 



to attack was "surrounded on all sides by the thorny 

 Dadambo creeper (probably Toddalia aculeata), within 

 which was a triple line of fortifications, with one gate of 

 difficult access." 1 



During the existence of the Kandyan kingdom as an 

 independent state, before its conquest by the British, the 

 frontier forests were so thickened and defended by dense 

 plantations of these thorny palms and climbers at different 

 points, as to exhibit a natural fortification impregnable to 

 the feeble tribes on the other side, and at each pass which 

 led to the level country, movable gates, formed of the 

 same formidable thorny beams, were suspended as an 

 ample security against the -incursions of the naked and 

 timid lowlanders. 2 



The pasture grounds throughout the vicinity of Jaffna 

 abound in a low shrub called the Buffalo-thorn 3 , the black 

 twigs of which are beset at every joint by a pair of thorns, 

 set opposite each other like the horns of an ox, as sharp as 

 a needle, from two to- three inches in length, and thicker 

 at the base than the stem they grow on. 



The Acacia tomentosa is of the same genus, with 

 thorns so large as to be called the "jungle-nail " by 

 Europeans. It is frequent in the woods of Jaffna and 

 Manaar, where it bears the Tamil name of Ami mulla, 

 or " elephant thorn." In some of these thorny plants, 

 as in the Phoberos Gcertneri, Thun., 4 the spines grow not 

 singly, but in branching clusters, each point presenting a 

 spike as sharp as a lancet ; and where these formidable 



1 Mahawanso, ch. xxv. 



2 The kings of Kandy maintained 

 a regulation " that no one, on pain of 

 death, should presume to cut a road 

 through the forest wider than' was 

 sufficient for one person to pass." 

 WOLF'S Life and Adventures, p. 308. 



3 Acacia latronum. 



4 Mr. Wm. Ferguson writes to me, 

 "This is the famous Katu-kurundu, 

 or ' thorny cinnamon,' of the Singha- 



lese, figured and described by Gaert- 

 ner as the Limonia pusilla, which, 

 after a great deal of labour and re- 

 search I think I have identified as 

 the Phoberos macrophyttiis (W. and 

 A. Prod. p. 30). Thunberg alludes to 

 it (Travels, vol. iv.) "Why the 

 Singhalese have called it a cinnamon, 

 I do not know, unless from some 

 fancied similarity in its seeds to those 

 of the cinnamon laurel." 



