13 



can discover any thing in tlieir persons^ colour, or appearance, 



which marks a foreign origin. 



I should abuse the patience of the Society if I were to add more 

 to this brief and uninteresting sketch of their early history. The 

 dimness of the few and scattered lights which remain to us leaves 

 much to regret, and yet enables us to see enough to admire and re- 

 verence. A church that traces its descent without question from the 

 III century, and with great show of reason from the very age of the 

 Apostles, is in iiself venerable. That they have preserved them- 

 selves with very slender means of intercourse with other churches 

 pure from surrounding heathenism, may well be considered as a 

 moral phenomenon ; and that they have continued, in the midst of 

 much error, to preserve unshaken their reverence for the Divine 

 Oracles as the only source of truth and the only final appeal in 

 controversy, while they give its due weight to tradition as an histori- 

 cal evidence, is one of the most singular features in a church so 

 situated, and gives the brightest hope of their ultimate reformation. 

 (To be continued.) 



The drawings from which the annexed prints have been taken f 

 as well as the following account were furnished to the Madras 

 Literary Society by Captain (now Lieut. Colonel) Bowler. 



(No. 1.) 



Drawing of a Cluster of very remarkable Palmyra Trees, growing 

 in the Cutchery compound at Masulipatam. 



They are called by the Hindoos tps^t* ^^2^ and also IC^'^ih 

 In the former the name of the deity Ramah is prefixed merely to 

 denote something curious, or remarkable ; and not on account of 

 their being supposed to possess any peculiar virtue. The secoud 

 name implies a barren tree. 



They produce a kind of nut, in shape and'colour perfectly resem- 

 bling the fruit of the proper Palmyra, but it is of no use from being 

 almost entirely a hard, solid, substance. 



The leaves are very small, and the trees very slender, in compari- 

 son with the proper Palmyra. 



The height of the tallest is 50 feet. 



W. S. BOWLER. 



(No. 2.) 



This tree which is in a low Jungle about 4 miles in a south 

 westerly direction from Chicacole, seems to be of precisely the same 

 species as those in the Cutcherry compound at Masulipatam, a 



