Foreign Notices: — North America. 



11 



to make a complete collection of this, as well as of all other species of 



palms, in Ceylon. 



The tall palm trees in Rajah Pakse's garden are the Cocos nucifera 

 . {.fig- 20.), the Borassus flabelliformis, 

 ^° ' 'fl0^ a"*^' the Caryota urens. Of the first 

 the following description is given by Sir 

 Alexander Johnston in his note of the 

 above-mentioned papers, delivered by 

 him to the Asiatic Society : — 



The coarse filament of the cocoa- 

 nut husk, called coir, is used through- 

 out India for rope. In Ceylon it is ob- 

 tained from the cocoa-nut trees, which 

 grow in great luxuriance along the 

 south-west part of the coast, from the 

 river Hymel to the river Wallaway, 

 forming a belt one hundred and thirty 

 miles in length, and one and a half in 

 breadth. This belt was estimated, in 

 the time when the Dutch governed 

 Ceylon, to contain between ten and 



eleven millions of cocoa-nut trees, and'to produce, in addition to a great 



quantity of cocoa-nut oil, and six thou- 

 sand leaguers of arrack, upwards of three 



millions of pounds weight of coir. . A 



good tree in that belt was estimated to 



produce from fifty to eighty, and some- 

 times one hundred cocoa-nuts in a year ; 



each cocoa-nut being equivalent, as food, 



to at least three ounces of rice. Of the 



latter the following description is given in 



a note to the same paper : — 



The Palmyra of the province of Jaffna 



is the Borassus flabelliformis (^g. 21.) of 



LinnaBus. This palm grows to great per- 

 fection in that province. The species of 



Borassus in Jaffna, which is so valuable, is 



that of which the wood is almost quite 



black. It is used all over India for i-aft- 



ers, and for the roofs of houses; and is 



peculiarly valuable, from its resisting all in- 

 sects, and being extremely durable. The 



Borassus, independently of its supplying 



this valuable wood for exportation, is of the 



greatest importance to the inhabitants of 



Jaffna, from its fruit and roots being used 



by them for food; and from many other 



parts of it being used by them in manufactures, and as articles of trade. 



{Sir A. Johnston in Trans, of the R.A.S., vol. i. p. 454.) 



NORTH AMERICA. 



Jamaica Sopietyfor the Encouragement of Arts and Agriculture. — Sir, I 

 take the liberty of sending you the following account of proceedings in the 

 Jamaica Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and Agriculture, on 

 Nov. 11., when premiums were awarded to Mr. Smith, for New Zealand 

 hemp and various other new plants, 8 dollars ; to Mr. John Wills, for 

 cauliflowers, 3 dollars ; to Mr. Alexander Robertson, for mead, 4 dollars ; 



