CH. xm USEFUL PLANTS IN MINAHASSA 835 



is the kayu-hitam, or black ebony of the Diospyros ebenum 

 tree. iJjati is the name given to various kinds of wood 

 from trees of the order Verbenacese. The true teak 

 {Tectona grandis) occurs in the neighbourhood of Manado, 

 but it is not found in very great abundance in the moun- 

 tainous country of the interior. The valuable iron-wood 

 tree (Eusideroxylon zicageri) grows in many places on the 

 coasts and extends some distance up the mountain slopes. 



The cotton tree or kapok {Eriodendron anfractuosum) 

 provides the natives with an inferior kind of wool, and the 

 Brousonettia provides them with a bast from which they 

 make — ^or rather used to make — their jackets (tjidakos), and 

 a coarse kuid of paper. 



Many kinds of luscious tropical fruits are sold in the 

 market-places of Minahassa, some of the numerous varieties 

 of bananas and mangoes, pineapples, durians, mangostens, 

 rhumbutans, catapangs, oranges and lemons, and others, 

 but it is difficult to say which of these are really natives 

 of the country, and which have been brought by man from 

 other regions. 



Spanish pepper, the native tjabehhesar {Capsicum frutes- 

 cens), originally imported from America, now grows wild 

 and in abundance in waste places. As a flavouring for his 

 daily meal of rice it has almost become an article of neces- 

 sity to the Malay. 



Agar-agar, a Hght-blue jelly-like substance obtained 

 from the Sphceroccus lichenoides, is largely used as a cool- 

 ing drink. 



The staple article of food in Minahassa, as in most 

 parts of Malayia, is rice. This useful cereal is cultivated 

 in dry fields (kebon kring), and in wet fields {kebon petjeh). 

 On the dry grounds the rice is sown at the beginning of the 

 west monsoon in December or January. The harvest is 

 on the coast in AprU, and in the mountains in May or June. 



