170 THE BETEL NUT 



suddenly finds the path lead him into a betel nut 

 garden, with no wire fence, or locked gate, or in- 

 hospitable notice threatening prosecution to tres- 

 passers, he feels as if he had entered some region of 

 bliss where the earthly senses are too narrow for the 

 delights that press for entrance to the soul. 



In the first place, the areca nut palm is almost, 

 if not altogether, the most graceful of all its graceful 

 tribe. Unlike the coconut, it grows as erect as a 

 flagstaff, and the effect of this is increased by its 

 extreme slenderness, for though it may attain a 

 height of fifty feet, its diameter scarcely exceeds 

 six inches. At the top of the stem there is a sheath 

 of polished green, from the top of which again 

 there issues a tuft of the most ethereal, feathery 

 fronds, diverging and drooping with matchless grace. 

 Under these hang the clusters of reddish-brown nuts. 



As the areca nut will not grow except in places 

 that are at once moist and warm, the gardens are 

 generally situated in narrow valleys and dells among 

 hills, with little streams of limpid water rippling 

 past them or through them. The steaming heat 

 of such situations can only be realised by one who 

 has traversed them at noon in the month of May 

 in pursuit of sport or natural history. But the 

 palms grow so close together that their fronds mingle 

 into an almost unbroken roof, through which the 

 sun can scarcely peep, and every air that enters 

 there has the heat charmed out of it, and as it 

 wanders among the broad, aromatic leaves of the 



