FRUIT & FOREST TUBES. , 



Phang gindy, is ft species lately imported from 

 Madras where it is in great request. It has this 

 advantage over the other kinds, that it can be 

 stewed down like an apple while they remain tough. 



About 144 si mots of the plantain are planted on 

 an orlung, each of which spreads into a group of six 

 or eight stems of about from 6 inches to one foot 

 in diameter, winch yield, each, a bunch of fruit and 

 are then cut down, when fresh shoots succeed. In 

 vi i y rich soils the tree, or rather plant, will continue 

 t ') hear for 20 years, hut. otherwise it is dug- up after 

 the 7th. or 8th. jrgQft Hie cost of cultivating 100 

 orlongs of land exclusively with plantains, will be 

 nearly 2,000 Sp. dollars until produce be obtained : 

 about 43^200 bunches may be had afterwards year- 

 ly, which might give a return of 2,160 drs. or deduct- 

 ing co0S of cultivation and original expenses, a 

 profit per annum of about 1,400 drs. Independent 

 of ihe quantity consumed on the spot, that brought 

 to the markets in Penang and in Province Welles- 

 Icy, the growth of the latter district, amounts to about 

 thirty thousand loads lor a man annually, which 

 may be worth aliout 9,000 Spanish dollars. 



The Malays allege that they can produce a new spe- 

 cies of plantain by planting three shoots of different 

 sorts together, and by cutting the shoots down to the 

 rnuud, three successive times when they have reached 

 the height of nine or ten inches. The plantain may 

 l»e deemed the most valuable of fruits here, since it 

 Will, in some measure, supply the place of corn in a 

 scarcity. 



JAMBOO KL1NG, AND JAMBOO AYER MAWAH, 

 Are handsome evergreens which bear dark-red 

 fruits having "a pleasant subacid taste slightly 

 approaching that of an apple; they are not in much 

 demand and the cultivation is confined ; a tree will 

 vield two or three thousand fruits. 



