VOYAGE FEOM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 101 



room built on strong poles. Xearly all the houses facing- the sea 

 were built in the same manner. Before this dining pavilion 

 grew on either side a big tree ; the leaves were bifarious, on 

 long thread-like alternate stalks, the leaflets were oval, pointed 

 and finely ribbed. The pods, which were ripe now and still 

 grew in great abundance near the top of the tree, showed them 

 to be a Fterocarpus.* There were no blossoms on them now, but 

 they resembled those trees which I had seen near Tofuapaduam 

 in Wannis, and the Malays also told me, that a red sap flowed 

 out of them if one cut a hole into the tree; this sap was regard- 

 ed as a gTeat remedy here, as well as in Ceylon. The short time 

 did not admit of any further researches concerning^ these trees. 



The great fertility of these parts is shown in the great 

 variety of fruits with which their markets (Bassore) are filled. All 

 these fruits were of extraordinary size and very agreeable in taste. 

 Many Chinese also brought fruit to the different houses in large 

 quantities, though this is not the time when most fruits are ripe. 



The best of fruits were two kind of Durions ; one of themf 

 was of the size of an apricot and had a smooth dark brown rather 

 fleshy and astringent peel which was about two lines thick ; at 

 the upper end of the fruit grows a star, consisting of five to seven 

 parts with blunt edges ; this star shows into how many parts the 

 flesh of the inside is divided. The fleshy part is ball-shaped, has 

 sometimes seven, but more frequently less, divisions; each of 

 these divisions is round at the outer side and the inner one has 

 the shape of a two-sided wedge, all hang together by a spongy 

 kind of white receptacle. The fleshy part is milky white in 

 appearance, little transparent, and of a substance easily melting 

 in the mouth; it is agreeably sweet mixed with very little acid. 

 Some of these divisions contain a kernel, which is almost 

 round, a little flat at the sides, green, but covered with a r^d 

 membrane which has a bitter taste when it is bitten through. 

 Those divisions containing the kernels are bigger than the rest; 

 they seldom have more than two kernels in one division. 



The second kind has an ochre colour and is covered with 

 soft dehcate hair ; they have neither a calyx nor the star at the 

 top; their taste is somewhat acid and not as nice. J 



* The Angsana. Ptrocarpus indicus, L. Big trees of wliick can still 

 be seen in Malacca. 



t Evidently Mangosteen, % Perhaps Bambai. 



