84 VOYAGE FROM INDIA TO SIAM AND MALACCA. 



Many of the fruits of these white Areca nuts were quite small, 

 others were almost ripe and began to turn white. They were 

 egg-shaped, pointed at the outer end, smooth and shiny ; the 

 kernel contained some sap and enclosed a nut which had the 

 size of a laurel. The calix, the corolla, and the stylus were like 

 those of the areca nuts. 



The second species grew thrice as high ; the stem was 

 as a strong hand, the leaves were like those of the other kind 

 and had three nerves. A small young spadix had its spatha 

 membranacea cymbi formis nivea hanging on it still ; the spadix 

 was blood-red, and consisted of few branches, which were about 

 one foot in length. They grew underneath the crown, where a leaf 

 had fallen off. The female ones had their spadices a little longer 

 and on them grew some blood-red, oval, smooth fruits, having 

 the size of a plum. From the nuts I judge that it must be an 

 areca, because I found the same characteristics in all the new-found 

 specimens ; there was nothing remarkable about the stamina and 

 stylus. The calyx and the coralla have been wrongly described 

 by Mr. Linne. They all have the prickly fibrous substance 

 enclosing the kernel. 



I also saw here a peculiar kind of tree which resembled the 

 Calamo Rotan. The stem grew in a slanting manner, and like 

 that of all Hotans it was covered with prickles. It was about 

 one and half man high. The leaves were simpliciter pinnate, and 

 three feet long; their pinna were Rhomboidal, and grew with 

 one side of the Rhombi on the common stalk. They were quite 

 flat, striped with nerves, a little leathery and smooth. The point 

 of the leaflets was lengthened, both edges running down were 

 integerrima, the upper ones laccerodenta. They are eight inches 

 long and four inches wide. I took some of them with me, and 

 also some leaves from the Areca trees, but the negligence of my 

 people and my present weak memory let me only keep a white 

 Areca tree and a leaf of the Rotan, because 1 carried both 

 in my own hand. 



13. — I was seized with a violent bilious fever, combined 

 with cold shivers and general weakness. This sinking of my 

 strength was an even stronger proof of my illness than all exter- 

 nal signs. I therefore took an emetic in Ihe evening and I 

 vomitted an unusual amount of gall. The day after I used Tart: 

 emet. gr. uj. in Hij. disolved in water, and continued taking this 



