330 THE BETEL-NUT OF COMMERCE. 



rather forego meat and drink than their favourite Betel-nuts, whole ship- 

 loads of which are annually exported from Ceylon, Sumatra, Malacca, 

 Siain, and Cochin China. One hundred millions of people use the Betel- 

 nut. There are said to he twenty different species of Areca, but probably 

 many of these are only varieties. This palm often grows 50 feet high, 

 with a diameter of less than 2 feet ; it has no branches. The fruit, a drupe, 

 about the size of a pullet's egg, does not fall from the tree even when 

 ripe ; it has a yellowish shell ; thin, with arched veins, cohering with the 

 pulp all round. In Johanna, the nut is used for dying cotton red or 

 making ink. A cargo of betel-nuts generates so much heat that the crew 

 cannot sleep between decks. A good tooth-powder is made from the nuts. 

 The nuts turned are used for bracelets. In the Cossyah or Khasia country 

 the natives measure distances by the number of mouths of betel-nuts 

 chewed on the road. 



The nuts vary in size ; their quality, however, does not at all depend upon 

 their size, but upon their natural appearance when cut, indicating the 

 quantity of astringent matter contained in them. If the white or medullary 

 portion which intersects the red or astringent part be small, has assumed 

 a bluish tinge, and the astringent part itself be red, the nut is considered 

 of good quality ; but when the medullary portion is in larger quantity, 

 the nut is considered more mature, does not possess so much astringency, 

 and is, therefore, not so much esteemed. 



It is stated, that a fruitful palm will produce, on an average, 850 nuts 

 annually. The average production in a plantation is, however, about 

 10,000 pounds of nuts per acre. 



In the Island of Yap, Western Pacific, the betel-nut tree is cultivated 

 with the greatest care. It is a beautiful slender palm, and grows amongst 

 the cocoa-nut trees, which it resembles in appearance. The nuts are pulled 

 before they are ripe, and are chewed with the usual condiments, lime and 

 aromatic leaves, by both sexes. They are called Addaca in Travancore. In 

 the Bombay market three kinds are met with : white, from Shevurdhun, 

 which are three times the value of those from other countries ; red, which 

 are half the value of the best white, and nuts in the husk sold by the 

 thousand. The crushed nut is generally, used with the leaf of the betel 

 pepper (Chavica betle or Piper Siriboa), and chunam or shell-lime. Prepared 

 slices of boiled betel-nut, called Callyareka, are sold in Cochin at about 6d. 

 a pound. 



. The mastication of "the betel is considered very wholesome by those who 

 are in the habit of using it. Mr. Crawfurd thinks that like tea, coffee, and 

 tobacco, the areca-nut stimulates the nervous system, and hence its general 

 use. It may be so, but the black hue it gives, to the teeth (although it is 

 said to be an excellent preserver of them), together with the blackened lips 

 and mouth, give anything but an agreeable appearance. Its use certainly 

 does not impart additional beauty to the native females who habituate them- 

 selves to an equal" extent to those of the opposite sex. Though the quantity 

 of tannin contained in the betel-nut must exercise an injurious influence, 



