332 THE BETEL-NUT OP COMMERCE. 



nut. At Travancore, where the betel-nut is a staple product, a quarter of 

 a century ago there were ten and a quarter million of trees growing, which 

 at the average yield would produce about 63,000 tons of nuts. In Pinang, 

 there are half a million or more betel palms, producing upwards of 3,000 

 tons, and the island takes its name from this tree. The Pedes coast of 

 Sumatra produces annually about 4,700 tons, of which half is exported. The 

 Chinese receive from thence 3,000 tons, besides as much more from Cochin 

 China. When there is not an immediate demand for the nuts, they are 

 stored in the husk, but insects attack them freely. Of the nuts produced 

 in Travancore, 300 tons of prepared nuts are annually sent to Tinnevelly 

 and other parts of the Peninsula, and about 3,000,000 ripe nuts, in the 

 husk, to Bombay and other places by sea. The local modes of preparing 

 the nut for use in Travancore are as follows : — Those used by families of 

 rank are collected while the fruit is tender, the husk or outer pod is 

 removed, the kernel, a round fleshy mass, is boiled in water. In the first 

 boiling of the nut, when properly done, the water becomes red, thick, and 

 starchlike, and this is afterwards evaporated into a substance like gambier 

 or catechu. The boiled nuts being now removed, sliced, and dried, the 

 catechu-like substance is rubbed thereto, and dried again in the sun, when 

 they become of a shining black colour, and are ready for use. "Whole nuts 

 without being sliced, are also prepared in the same way for use. Ripe nuts 

 as well as young nuts in the raw state are used by all classes of people, and 

 ripe nuts which have been steeped or kept in water, are also used by the 

 higher classes. 



Various Asiatics have recourse to different other species of Areca ; for 

 instance, the convicts confined on the Andaman Islands use the nuts of Areca 

 laxa, Hamilt. ; the Nagas and Abors of Eastern Bengal use those of A. 

 Negensis, Griff. ; and the natives of the mountainous districts of Malabar 

 those of A. Dicksoni, Roxb., instead of those of A. Catechu, Linn. The 

 poorer classes in Silhet use the seeds of Calamus erectus, Roxb., as a 

 substitute for betel-nut. The bark of Callicarpa lanata, Linn., which is 

 sub-aromatic, and slightly bitter to the taste, is chewed by the Cingalese 

 instead of betel leaves. 



At Pedir, Acheen, and other parts of the East, betel-nuts are sold by 

 the loxa or laxar, which weighs about 168 lbs., and consists of 10,000 nuts, 

 with from ten to twenty-five per cent, added, according to the bargain 

 previously made, for nuts which may be worm-eaten or otherwise damaged. 



Betel-nuts are but little used in this country. They are occasionally 

 sold to stable-keepers, who grate them and mix them with horse-food as a 

 preventive of diarrhoea. They are burnt into charcoal for tooth-powder, 

 but this has no superior merit over other vegetable charcoal. They are 

 occasionally worked by the turner, and wrought into different kinds of 

 beads for bracelets, small rosary cases, and other little fancy ornaments, 

 but they are too small to be applied to many uses. In the Museum of 

 Economic Botany, at Kew, there is a walking-stick made of betel nuts, 

 strung upon an iron centre. 



