to 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XIX. 



there not being a palm therein that had not been planted, 

 even on the hill,* above the stones, as is even now seen ; and 

 the goodness of the soil and its coolness allows of all this. 

 So that even now, after their being cut down (and they are 

 going on every day cutting down many palm trees), the least 

 that is visible is the city. This makes it a little sombre and 

 melancholy, although inside it is becoming beautified with 

 many and good d welling-hou ses which look like palaces ; and 

 outside with many country-houses which have been and are 

 being built with splendid houses and large enclosures ; and 

 they are already getting near to the river Calane, which is 

 close upon a league." 



Again : " There are in Ceilao all the varieties of palm trees 

 that are distributed over the other parts of India, to wit, the 

 White Trefolins,t the Cajurins,^ Nipeira§ or Date-palms, 

 but these wild ones ; because though they yield fruit it is 

 not fit for food. There are the Talapates, which bear a leaf 

 so large, and united after the manner of the bat's wing, that 

 of one alone is made an umbrella which can shelter three or 

 four persons together from the sun and the rain. There are 

 lastly the cultivated ones, which bear such large cocos that 

 they are two and a half spans in circumference, particularly 

 in Mateigama. Among the cultivated ones there is one 

 variety in Ceilao which is not found in any other place ; nor 

 have I heard it spoken of until now. In our Castle of 

 Columbo there is a palm tree whose bark, leaves, new and 

 old, fruit in little lanhas|| and afterwards cocos, always have 

 a yellow colour, like that of gold;U and it may well be that 



* St. Sebastian.— D. W. F. 

 t Kitul? — D. W. F. 

 t Areca ?— D. W.F. 



§ See Hob son- Jol son, s. v. ' : Nipa." The Nipa fruticans, not the Date- 

 palm, as the writer seems to imply. — D. W. F. 



|| Vieyra's Port. Diet, has "Lanha, s. f. (in Ethiopia), the fruit of the 

 cocoa tree when it is tender and green." I do not know what the origin of 

 the word is ; but cf. Sinh. la, unripe, young, immature. From Tannilan- 

 kay = unripe fruit. — D. W. F. 



% The " King-coconut" is, of course, referred to— D. W. F. 



