100 EJOO OR GOMUTO FIBRE. 
We thus observe that the tree is valuable for several very dis- 
tinct, and all very useful products. It is described by Marsden, 
in his ‘Sumatra,’ under the name of Anouw, as a Palm of “much 
importance, as the natives procure from it sago (but there is 
also another sago tree, more productive); ¢oddy, or palm wine, 
of the first quality; sugar, or jaggary; and goo.” Dr. Rox- 
burgh, writing in the year 1799, says of it: “I cannot avoid 
recommending to every one who possesses lands, particularly 
such as are low and near the coasts of India, to extend the 
cultivation thereof as much as possible. The palm wine itself, 
and the sugar it yields, the black fibres for cables and cordage, 
and the pith for sago, independently of many other uses, are 
objects of very great importance, particularly to the first mari- 
time power in the world, which is in a great measure dependent 
on foreign states for hemp.” 
This Palm is to be found in all parts, from the Gulf of 
Bengal to all the Asiatic islands on its eastward, especially in 
low moist situations and along the banks of rivers. 
Dr. Roxburgh describes the trees (in 1810) which had been 
introduced into the Botanic Garden at Calcutta about twenty- 
four years before, as from twenty to thirty feet in height, ex- 
clusive of foliage or fronds, which rise from fifteen to twenty 
feet higher. These fronds or leaves are pinnate, and from 
fifteen to twenty-five feet long. The trunk is straight, at first 
covered entirely with the sheaths of the fronds or leaves, and 
the black horsehair-like fibres, called by the Malays Ejoo, which 
issue in great abundance from the margins of these sheaths. 
As the tree advances in age and size, these drop off, leaving an 
elegant, columnar, naked trunk. He further states that he had 
observed that each of the well-grown thriving trees produces 
about six leaves annually, and that each leaf yields about three 
quarters of a pound weight of these fibres, and, therefore, each 
tree about four pounds and a half. But some luxuriant trees 
yield at least one pound of fibre from each leaf. 
As these black fibres issue from the sides of the sheaths, they 
necessarily surround the stem, and may be cut off without 
injury to the tree. Even in commercial specimens, some may 
be seen covered both on the upper and lower surface with 
dense cellular membrane, having between them a mass of these 
black fibres. These are supported by thicker or whalebone- 
