Batit—Ldentification of the Animals and Plants of India. 887 
The reeds are distinguished by sex, some being male and others female. 
The male reed has no pith and is exceedingly strong, but the female 
has a pith.’’** Tzetes,** Theophrastus,” and Strabo” are other authors 
who treat of this subject. I have on the preceding page given an account 
of the kana reed ( Typha elephantina, Roxb.), which has been suggested 
as an alternative with the bamboo by Lassen; but although, as stated, 
bundles of its slender stalks, when dried, are used for mere purposes of 
flotation on the Indus, it cannot have been made into canoes. 
Statements made by Lassen and Sprengel, that the bamboo some- 
times has a diameter of two feet, are quite incorrect. Nine inches is an 
extreme and very exceptional limit,** and as the larger species of bamboo 
do not occur near the Indus, on account of their only flourishing in moist 
tropical climates, we must look to some other tree as having furnished, 
when the stem was split, almost ready-made boats capable of holding 
several people. At the present day, excluding timber dug-outs, made of 
Bombax, &c., the only trees so employed are palms; and among the 
species so used, namely the cocoanut, the date-palm, and the palmyra, 
(Borassus flabelliformis, Linn.), I should be inclined to give the preference 
to the latter, as it is cultivated in Lower Sind. The diameter of a full- 
grown tree is from 18 to 24 inches, or the circumference is, say, six feet 
at the base; the height is from 40 to 60 feet, and in favourable locali- 
ties, as in Burma, 100 feet. Canoes, capable of holding two or three 
people, are made from the stems of this palm in many parts of India at 
the present day. Itis noteworthy, moreover, that the Sanscrit name is 
Trinarga, i.e. king of the grassesorreeds. The Phenix dactylifera, or 
date-palm, which is now the common palm in the Indus valley, at- 
tains a height of 100 to 120 feet, and the trunks of male trees are, I 
believe, used for canoes; but if, as is stated by Brandis, it was only 
introduced into Sind in the eighth century, it cannot have been the 
tree mentioned by our ancient authors. 
5. Toe Navprius (NavzAuos). 
Cocos nucifera.—The Indian Cocoanut 
Under the name Nauplius, which Miller suggests, as stated by Mr. 
M‘Crindle, is a mistake for vapyAvos (the Arabian narigil, or Sanskrit 
nartkela), the author of the Periplus,* refers to the cocoanut, while 
Kosmas® gives a very good description of it, under the name argeliia, 
evidently a transliteration of the native name minus the initial x. 
88 Cf. Ancient India, by J. W. M‘Crindle, p. 10. 
89 Chil. vii., v. 739, from third book of ’ApaBuoy of Uranius. 
90 Plant Hist., ix. 11. 
81 Tid. xv. 21. 
%2 Brandis’ Forest Flora, p. 554, gives for the stems of Bambusa arundriancea, 
Retz, diameters varying from four to nine inches. 
93 Forest Flora, p. 553. 
9 The Erythraan Sea, by J. W. M‘Crindle, p. 26. 
%5 Ancient India, p. 95. 
