316 
VOYAGE OP THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
tree somewhat hke the English walnut^ and has a delicious 
flavour. The rambootan and the poolasang, or red fruit, which 
are cool and agreeable, of a delicate subacid flavour, and quite 
refreshing in a tropical climate. The cocoanut, tamarind, pome- 
granate, roseapple, guava, annona, date, banana, jack-fruit, doorian, 
durian, or duren, boa-lansa, pineapple, lanseb, papaw, custard- 
apple, &c. Oranges, citrons, shaddocks, lemons, and limes, are 
plenty; and in some provinces, peaches, Chinese pairs, and rasp- 
berries. 
The flowers of Java are celebrated for their beauty and fra- 
grance. There is a tree called the mitchelia tchampaca, of two 
varieties, one of which bears white and the other yellow flowers, 
of exquisite odour. The coral-tree puts forth large clusters of 
scarlet flowers ; while the magnolia, the melia, and bignonia, pre- 
sent a showy and elegant ' appearance. Among the innumerable 
flowers which bloom in perpetual succession, are the champaka, 
tanjong melati-kananga, and nagasari, which are used by the 
natives as ornaments, and are remarkable for their fragrance. The 
myrtle and rose are found in the gardens of the Europeans. 
Large tracts of the island, particularly in the eastern provinces, 
are covered with forests of that excellent timber called teak, 
which has long been celebrated for its strength and durability in 
ship-building, &c. It is said to be in these respects every way 
equal to live oak, and even superior in the fineness of its grain 
and beauty of its colour. It is of different shades, from light to 
intense brown, with a cast of violet, verging sometimes to red or 
black ; and furnishes excellent materials for handsome cabinet- 
work. This tree is slender and erect ; shoots up with consider- 
able vigour and rapidity, but increases in diameter very slowly, 
and is many years, at least a century, in arriving at maturity. It 
the Isle of France were made as early as the year seventeen hundred and fifty-four. 
A wild variety of the mangusteen is found in the wood of Java and Celebes, but the 
true mangusteen appears to be a native of the western portion of the Archipelago only. 
It refuses to grow in some of the Spice Islands, and thrives but indifferently in others. 
The latitude of Lusong, in the Philippines, is the highest in which it is brought to 
grow. Like the more useful plants of rare occurrence in the state of nature, the 
mangusteen is universally, or very nearly so ; having no other than manggis, mang- 
gisi, or manggusta, evidently modifications of one term. The wild fruit is known 
by different names from the cultivated, and those names differ in each language. — 
Crawford''s Eastern Archipelago. 
