the Fruit of the Mellqri* x6:j 



advantage from the leaves of the tree, which they convert into mats and 

 bags to hold coffee. 



NOTE by the PRESIDENT. 



As far as we can determine the clafs and order of a plant from a mere deli- 

 neation of its fruit, we may fafely pronounce, that the Le'ram of Nicobar 

 is the Cddki of the Arabs, the Cctaca of the Indians, and the Pandanus of our 

 botanifts, which is defcrihed very aivkardly (as Koenig firft obferved to me) 

 in the Supplement to Linnaeus: he had himfelf defcribed with that 

 elegant. concifenefs, which conftitutes the beauty of the Llnnean method, not 

 only the wonderful fructification of the fragrant Ce'taea, but mod of the 

 flowers, which are celebrated in Sanfcrit, by poets for their colour or fcent 

 and by phyficians for their medical ufes ; and,; as he bequeathed his manuf- 

 cripts. to Sir Joseph Banks, we may be fure, that the publick fpirit of 

 that illuftrious naturaliit will not fufFer the labours of his learned friend to be 

 funk in oblivion. Whether the Pandanus her am be a new /pedes, or 

 only a variety, we cannot yet pofitively decide -, but four of the plants have 

 been brought from Nicobar, and feem to flouriih in the Company's Botan- 

 j ical Garden, where they will probably blofTom ; and the greatefl: encour- 

 agement will, I truft, be given to the cultivation of fo precious a vegetable. 

 A fruit weighing twenty or thirty pounds, and containing a farinaceous 

 fubftance, both palatable and nutritive in a high degree, would perhaps, if 

 it were common in thefe provinces, for ever fecure' the natives of them 

 from the horrors of famine ; and the Pandanus of Bengal might be brought, 

 I conceive, to equal perfection with that of Nicobar, if due care were taken 

 to plant the male and female trees in the fame place, iniread of leaving the 

 female, as at prefent, to bear an imperfect aud unproductive fruit, and thvs 

 diilant male to fpread itfelf only by the help of its radicating branches. 



W 2 



