105 
BARRINGTONIA  SEED  AS  A SAKAI  FOOD. 
From  Mr.  \V.  H.  ChaddOCK  of  tlie  Forest  Department^  I have 
received  specimens  of  a fruit  and  seed  of  a sp<  cies  of  Barrin^tonia 
of  which  he  writes  as  follows.  I send  you  an  article  of  Sakai  Diet 
which  I procured  at  a Sakai  camp  near  here  (Kuantan).  I'he 
Malays  call  it  Putat  Gajah.  The  large  kernel  of  the  fruit  is  grated 
on  a thorny  piece  of  cane  a yard  long,  (the  kernel  being  rubbed  up 
and  down  like  a fiddle  bow  with  rosin)  water  is  added  to  the  grat- 
ings and  squeezed  out  by  hand  as  a milk  not  unlike  the  milk  from 
coconut  gratings.  This  milk  is  allowed  to  settle  in  boat-shaped 
dishes  of  palm  sheaths,  the  water  is  decanted  off  and  the  deposit 
made  into  cakes  which  are  roasted  and  eaten.  The  gratings  if 
eaten  before  water  is  added  are  said  to  make  one  Mabok  ” (sick.) 
With  the  specimens  came  the  cane  used  for  grating,  a portion 
of  stem  of  a Calamus  the  sheaths  of  which  was  removed  at  one  end 
so  as  to  make  a handle,  and  the  thorns  on  the  upper  part  removed 
so  as  to  leave  their  ba^^es  onlv  which  made  the  cane  rough  enough 
to  act  as  a rasper.  The  boat  for  collecting  the  milk  is  about  a foot 
long  made  of  palm  sheaths,  the  ends  fastened  with  split  rattan. 
The  barringtonia  fruit  is  about  the  size  of  a turkey^s  egg  oval  about 
4 inches  long  and  7 inches  girth.  The  pericarp  is  not  very  thick 
about  j inch,  the  eudocarp  is  fibrous  and  woody  nearly  as  thick, 
the  seed  2 inches  across  round  and  grooved,  the  embryo  white  and 
large. 
The  seeds  of  several  species  of  Barringtonia^  are  eaten  in  the 
Fiji  islands  and  Formosa,  but  many  of  them  contain  an  intoxica- 
ting property  analogous  to  Tuba  which  is  used  in  stupefying  fish. 
1 am  not  certain  as  to  what  species  of  Barringtonia,  this  belongs 
to.  The  fruit  somewhat  resembles  that  of  the  sea-shore  B.  race- 
mosa,  Roxb.  but  is  larger  than  any  form  of  that  which  I have  seen. 
I'here  are  at  least  eleven  species  of  the  genus  in  the  Peninsula  of 
several  of  which  ripe  fruit  is  unknown. 
The  name  Putat  Gajah,  I have  found  applied  to  several  species 
viz.  B.  fnsiformis,  B.  sumatrana  Miq.  and  B.  Scortechinii,  King 
I suspect  that  this  fruit  belongs  to  the  latter  species  of  which  1 have 
not  setn  ripe  fruit.  The  name  Putat  applied  to  all  species  of 
Barringtonia,  here.  Pudja  or  Pucha  (in  Macassar)  is  doubtless 
connected  with  the  word  \Ttu  applied  to  them  in  Fiji. 
• Editor. 
THE  MOSQUITO  PLANT. 
Ocinium  viride. 
A good  deal  of  interest  has  been  caused  by  the  discovery  in 
Africa  of  the  fact  that  a kind  of  wild  basil  there  viz.  Ociwum  viride 
has  been  found  to  keep  away  Mosquitoes  when  planted  in  or  round 
houses,  as  seeds  of  this  plant  have  been  received  in  the  Botanic 
- Gardens,  Singaj)ore.  and  have  germinated  well,  it  may  interest  our 
readers  to  see  what  has  already  been  within  about  it,  when  the 
