of both, like the bowers of the Arbutus, hang in bunches, white 
and fragrant; the fruit resembles a small acorn. The young leaves 
and tender shoots are of a bright red, changing to green as they 
approach maturity; they taste of cinnamon, but the only valuable 
part of the tree is the inner bark; which being separated from the 
exterior, is cut into pieces, and exposed to the sun, when it dries 
and curls up, and is packed in cases for foreign markets. The 
tree decaying on being deprived of its bark is cut down, and new 
shoots spring from the root; it is also raised from seed. 
The Travencore country abounds with indigenous trees, whose 
blossoms and foliage have a pleasing and diversified appearance; 
most of the fruit and seeds produce oil; one by way of distinction 
is called the olive-tree, and bears a fruit in shape, size, and taste 
like the olive; and the oil is rather pleasant; but the leaf and cha- 
racter of the tree is altogether different, and far more beautiful in 
landscape than the grey tint of the Italian olive. 
The silk-cotton tree (bombax cerba, Lin.) grows luxuriantly 
in those districts: it produces beautiful cotton, but of loo delicate 
a texture for manufacture. This tree is extremely curious in its 
growth; the branches regularly project in horizontal stages, gra- 
dually diminishing as they approach the top, forming in the Mala- 
bar woods a crimson pyramid, of singular appearance; the flower 
resembles a single peony, or round tulip, of bright red, succeeded 
by a pod, in size and shape like a plantain, green at first, but 
ripening to a dark brown, when it bursts open, and covers the 
adjoining groves with snowy flakes, light as the floating gossamer. 
The animals in the southern provinces and mountainous regions 
of Malabar are tigers, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, hogs, civet- 
