64 
WONDERS OF THE TROPICAL FORESTS. 
the brandies of which spread out like the anns of a gigantic 
candelabrum. The tree must, however, be felled before 
the fruit begins to form, as otherwise the farina would be 
exhausted, which man destines for his food. When the 
trunk has been cut and split into convenient pieces, the 
pith is scooped oat, kneaded with water, and strained, to 
separate the meal from tho fibres. One tree will produce 
from two to four hundredweight of flour, which is mostly 
consumed on the spot. The Sago palm serves to feed 
several millions of men, and a great quantity of its produce 
is exported to Europe, 
The Sago palm forms large forests, particularly on 
swampy ground in IJorneo and Sumatra, in the iloluccas 
and New Guinea. Mushrooms of an excellent flavour 
frequently cover the mouldering trunks, and in the pith 
the fat grubs of a large beetle are found, which the natives 
consider a great delicacy when roasted. 
The Gomuti, which almost rivals the cocoa by the 
multiplicity of its uses, is likewise a native of the Indian 
Archipelago. On seeing its rough and swarthy rind, 
and the dull dark-green colour of its fronds, the stranger 
wonders how the unsightly tree is allowed to grow, but 
when he has tasted its delicious wine he is astonished 
not to see it cultivated in greater numbers. Although 
the outer covering of the fruits has venomous qualities, 
and is used by the Malays to poison springs, the nuts 
have a delicate flavour, and the wounded spathe yields an 
excellent toddy, which, like that of the cocoa and palmyra 
palms, changes by fermentation into an intoxicating wine, 
and on being thickened by boiling furnishes a kind of 
black sugar, much used by the natives of Java and tlie 
adjacent isles. The reticulum or fibrous net at the base 
of the petioles of the leaves constitutes the guniatty, a 
substance admirably adapted to the manufacture of cables, 
and extensively used for cordage of every description. 
The small hard twigs found mixed up with this material 
are employed as pens, besides forming the shafts of the 
