ON THE SACK-TREE OF CEYLON. 105 



in cakes, and a hundred other forms, which the skill oi the cook can accom- 

 plish. 



From the potato we can get sugar to sweeten our beverages, and ardent 

 spirits for those who like tbem ; while elegant flavouring essences and 

 scents are compounded from the refuse of distillation. For manufacturing 

 uses we see how largely they come in for dressing or stiffening fabrics, and 

 for gum in substitution of the more expensive African gum-arabic. You 

 may make coffee, bread, arrowroot, cheese, paper, pasteboard, and papier- 

 mache articles out of the potato ; and can also smoke the leaves for 

 tobacco, if you are so disposed. The instances given are, however, after 

 all but a tithe of the economic products that have been, or may yet 

 be, extracted from this useful tuber. 



ON THE SACK-TREE OF CEYLON (ANTIARIS SACCIDORA). 



BY W. C. ONDAATJE. 



The sack-tree of Ceylon is called in Singhalese, Rhete Gaha. It is a 

 very remarkable forest-tree, growing in the districts of Badulla and Ouvah. 

 By an ingenious though simple process, the natives prepare from the bark 

 of this tree materials for very strong and elastic sacks, for carrying 

 paddy, &c. The trees selected for the purpose are from three-quarters to 

 one foot in diameter. Larger ones, sometimes measuring as much as four 

 and a half feet and more in diameter, are not so suitable. The natives 

 know, by experience, how to avoid aged trunks, which can be thus 

 scientifically accounted for. In exogenous trees, by the increase of the 

 stem from within outwards, the bark diminishes in thickness by exfolia- 

 tion, or dies away and opens in fissures, &c, and is consequently not avail- 

 able for sack-making. When a tree has been fixed upon, the stem is cut 

 down and divided into junks of the size required; and these having been 

 firmly placed in the ground, the bark is well beaten with a stone or club, 

 until the parenchymatous parts, or what is commonly called the corticle, 

 comes off, leaving the liber or inner bark attached to the wood, which is 

 then entirely separated from it by simply drawing it out with the hand. 

 The bark thus obtained is of a fibrous structure, remarkably tough, pre- 

 senting the appearance of a woven fabric, like that of a stocking. This is 

 next sewn into sacks, and filled with sand, and dried in the sun to expand. 

 These sacks, I have been assured by a native Kandian, are so durable as to 

 last ten or twelve years. They are generally kept hung in the smoke until 

 required for use. Another mode of separating the inner bark is by a pro- 

 cess nearly similar, only the tree is not felled, but incisions are made in 

 the stem, one above and one below, a space being left between according 

 to the size that may be wanted. After the part of the bark to be removed 

 has been well beaten, as before, two lateral incisions are made, and the 



