3321 A COMMENTARY ON THE SECOND BOOK 
cerning their use : a fermented liquor is no more made 
from the root of the Sesoot, than beer is made from Hops. 
The fermented hquor is made from the sap of the Sague- 
rus, and the root of the Sesoot is used to regulate the fer- 
mentation, so as to make the liquor keep, and to give it an 
agreeable bitter flavour. 
So far as I can understand Rumphius, the leaves are 
bipinnated, and therefore the figure represents only one 
leaf. This supposition is, however, by no means certain, 
as he compares its foliage to that of the Clove, which has 
opposite branches and leaves. If the leaves are simple, like 
those of the Clove, or even pinnated, they must be oppo- 
site ; and were it not for this, from the account by Rum- 
phius of the fruit, I should have taken the plant to be a 
Connarus ; but, if the leaves are bipinnate, it is more 
likely to be an Inga ; nor is its quality in regulating the 
vinous fermentation unknown in plants nearly allied to this 
genus; for the bark of the Mimosa leucophlea (Roxb. 
Hort. Beng. 40) is used for this purpose (Buchanan^s My- 
sore, i. 39) ; and a clear viscid liquor, such as is described 
by Rumphius, is contained between the seed and external 
parietes of the fruit in several species of the LeguminoscB, 
belonging to the genus CcBsalpinia. 
CAP. LIII. 
Capraria^ p. 139. 
There being no figure, nor any account of flower and 
fi'uit, it is impossible to say what this plant may be, but it 
has pinnated leaves. 
