232 SCOTS FIR. 
The kernel of the areca-nut, which is covered by a 
thin, smooth, and yellowish shell, is somewhat like a 
nutmeg, but contains, in the centre, a white, soft, grey- 
ish, and almost liquid substance, which becomes hard 
as the nut ripens. This fruit is in general use by the 
Indians, who cut it into slices, mix it with other sub- 
stances, wrap it in the leaves of betel (22),, and chew it 
much in the same manner as the common people of our 
country chew tobacco. The consumption of these 
nuts in India is almost beyond calculation. They are 
an article of considerable trade, from port to port; and 
also from India to China, but they are seldom brought 
into England, though they might be of use in some of 
our manufactures. 
The drug called catechu, and formerly terra japonica, 
was supposed to be an extract prepared from the above 
nuts ; but it is now ascertained to be made from the 
wood of a species of mimosa. 
MONADELPHIA. 
246. The SCOTS FIR (Pinus sylvestris), which has its name 
from growing wild in different parts of Scotland, is known from 
other trees of the same tribe by having its slender and somewhat 
needle-shaped leaves in pairs ; its cones or seed-vessels somewhat 
egg-shaped, mostly in pairs, as long as the leaves, and the scales 
blunt. 
This useful tree flourishes with greatest luxuriance 
on the north and north-east sides of hills, in a poor and 
sandy soil, especially where this is mixed with loam. 
If planted among rocks, or in bogs, it seldom attains a 
large size; in black soil it becomes diseased ; and in 
chalky land it frequently pines away and dies. 
Its timber, under the name of deal, is employed as 
the wood-work of houses ; for rafters, flooring, doors, 
the frames of windows, tables, boxes, and other pur- 
poses, infinitely too various to be enumerated. Frigates, 
and other ships of large size, have sometimes been con- 
structed of deal .; but these are by no means so durable 
as vessels that are built of oak. Much of the deal which 
