44 



JOURNAL R. A. S. (CEYLON). [VOL. II., PART I. 



In this place, it may be interesting to mention, that an enter- 

 prising foreigner has lately established a tobacco plantation 

 at Tangalla, where he has introduced the kinds most in repute 

 in the European markets, and employs a professional man— a 

 Spaniard, I believe — to prepare the leaves and manufacture 

 them into cigars. Those made from tobacco grown from 

 Havannah seed are highly esteemed, and corumand a ready sale 

 at good prices. 



CocoanutSj fyc. 



Experience has proved that only in the neighbourhood of 

 the sea, the cocoanut tree grows to perfection ; yet it will bear 

 much fruit at any elevation below 2,000 feet. It is therefore 

 extraordinary that the inhabitants generally of the Sabara- 

 gamuwa District do not grow sufficient for their own use. 



Cocoanuts are still brought in large quantities from the low- 

 country and exchanged for local produce ; the tree being seldom 

 met with except surrounding the houses of headmen, and about 

 wihares. About the station of Ratnapura, on the banks of 

 the Kaluganga, the trees are very numerous, and, interspersed 

 with the elegant bambu, add great beauty to the landscape. 

 Whenever natives intend to plant cocoanuts, they always 

 procure the seed nuts from the low-country. The custom 

 appears based upon experience that the tree thus raised bears 

 better than one raised from seed grown on the spot. The 

 young cocoanut plant is not, as in the plantations, sprouted by 

 putting the nut upon the ground and partially burying it in 

 soil, but two nuts being tied together by strips of the husk, 

 are suspended over the branch of a tree until the green shoots 

 break forth, when they are planted in holes. They allege as 

 a reason for adopting this system, that they are safe from the 

 depredations of pigs and also from white ants. 



On occasions when jack and cocoanut trees are more par- 

 ticularly cared for, which is when the fruit is upon them, the 



