942 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



as a hard albumen. When the fruit is half-ripe (April-May), 

 while the shell is yet soft, t\ie,j are often torn off or cut from the 

 tree, and stripped of the outer bark. The shell of it is then 

 perforated with the finger, and then the soft kernel can be sucked 

 up. It is pleasant to the taste and exceedingly refreshing ; but 

 too large a quantity of it ought not to be taken, for, according to 

 Rumphius, it debilitates the stomach. The jelly and soft albumi- 

 nous layers are sometimes cut into pieces and flavoured with sugar 

 and rosewater. 



The fruits, when ripe, vary in colour from a light gold at the end 

 which is attached to the spadix, to brown and nearly black at the 

 other. !Some trees have all their fruits of a beautiful gold and 

 others of a very dark colour, and these differences in their colour 

 and other properties have induced the natives to give them various 

 names. The fruits, when they fall ripe from the tree, are sometimes 

 eaten raw, but are more generally roasted, and the scene exhibited 

 at a roasting feast of Palmyra fruits, is in Ferguson's estimation 

 one of the most purely Oriental that can be witnessed. " When at 

 hand, the shade of an Illipe (Bassia longifolici), of a Margosa 

 (Melia Azadiracktco), or Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) is chosen ; 

 a fire is lighted on the groimd, composed of Palmyra leaves, etc., 

 and the party, men, women, boys and girls, squat around, sucking 

 the pulp out of the fibres of each fruit as it is roasted, tearing them 

 asunder with nails and teeth in the most approved and natural 

 style, all appearing wrapped in the highest possible state of 

 alimentive enjoyment." 



The mesocarp of the ripe fruit is a soft, mellow, luscious, semi- 

 saccharine and farinaceous matter, known as Palmyra pulp. The 

 period during which the fruits are obtained being short and a greater 

 number ripening than the inhabitants can consume, preserved pulp 

 (called punatoo in Ceylon) is made in the following manner : — 

 " Pan dais (stages) are constructed within 4 or 5 feet of the ground, 

 and on these Palmyra-leaf mats are spread; the ripe fruits are 

 then taken, torn up, put into ola-baskets containing fresh water, 

 and are there squeezed by the hands till the pulp with the water 

 forms a jelly. Layers of this jelly are spread on the mats to dry ; 

 this process is repeated for 15 to 18 days, one layer being deposited 



