210. BORA 
yellow, feffine, flowers; feidom more than one expands at 
a .time, beginning with the uppermoft, fo that there is a 
long fucceffion of them. BraCtes numerous, wedge-form, 
concave, furrounding the bundle of flowers. Perianthium 
proper, hid within the i'cales of the ament, three-leaved: 
leaflets wedge-form, concave. Corolla elevated from the 
calyx, on a lmall, clubbed, triangular, pedicel, which is of 
fufSiient length to raife the flower above the fcales; petals 
three, oval, concave, points incurvate, fpreading. Filaments 
fix, very fhort. Antherae linear. 
Female flowers, on a different tree.—Spathe compound, 
as in the male. Spadix generally compoled of only two 
branches. Scales, annular, imbricated, cue-flowered, Iplit- 
fing in various places, as the fruit increales in fize, fmooth; 
thole neareft the bafe and the apex fterile. Perianthium 
proper, or corolla eight or twelve leaved: leaflets une- 
qual, concave, firm, leathery, clolely embracing the germ, 
permanent, and, with the fruit, increafing in fize. Fila¬ 
ments fix to nine, united into a ring, which furrounds the 
bale of the germ. Antherse oval, llerile. Germ, globu¬ 
lar. Style, none. Stigma, a lcaly navel as in ficus, with 
generally four fmall ftrite, which run from them, each 
ending in a dark-brown coloured (peck. Drupe, lhbglo- 
bular, with the apex flattened, fize of an infant’s head, 
fmooth; Ikin leathery, dark-brown, lhaded with dark yel¬ 
low ; inwardly replete with loft yellow pulp, intermixed 
with tough if raw-coloured hair. Nuts from two to four, 
(generally three,) inverle-broad-hearted, a little com- 
prelfed, of a tough horny l'ubftance, covered with much 
of the before-mentioned hair, perforated in the notch of 
the apex. Nucleus bears the general form of a nut, apex 
(not the bafe) three-lobed : on each fide grooved from the 
bale of the apex; in fubftance fomewhat cartilaginous, of 
a clear whitilh colour; in the centre there is a tranl'verfe 
flit, which, on drying, enlarges into a cavity. Native of the 
coaft of Coromandel, Ceylon, Java, &c. 
This, next to earyota urens, grows to be the larged 
palm on the Coromandel coafl. It i'eems to thrive equally 
well in all foils and fituations; but, when the growth is 
on high lands, at a diflance from the lea, the wood is much 
ftronger, and every way better. It flowers during the be¬ 
ginning of the hot feafon. When the feeds are young, 
they are a pleafant cooling jelly, much eaten by the na¬ 
tives ; and the addition of a little fugar and rofe-water 
makes them extremely palatable; the pulp of the ripe 
fruit is alio eaten by the natives. The tree, during the 
firfl part of the hot Ieafon, yields a pretty large quantity 
of toddy, or palm-wine, which is thus procured. The 
ipadix, either male or female, is cut through juft below 
where it begins to be divided into branches, and the juice 
is received into earthen pots fulpended for that purpofe; 
but it is neteilary that a fmall bit of the extremity of the 
fpadix fhould be daily cut otf, to remove the contracted 
dry extremities of the veffels, and facilitate the flow of 
frelh juice. The toddy is either drunk frelh drawn from 
the tree, or fermented for xliftillation ; or is boiled into a 
coarfe kind of fapa, or rob, called jaggary. The wood 
of this palm, near the circumference, when of fyfficient 
age (one hundred years or thereabouts), is remarkably 
hard, black, heavy, and durable, and is univerfally uled 
for rafters in pent-roofed houfes, for which purpofe it is 
certainly the firft wood in India. The centre is loft and 
fpongy, containing little elle than a coarfe kind of farina¬ 
ceous matter, intermixed with l'ome foft, white, woody, 
fibres ; and this is cut out, as the black exterior hard part 
only is employed. By the natives the leaves are univer¬ 
fally ufed for writing upon with an iron ilyle or bodkin ; 
they are alfo employed for thatching houfes, for making 
fmall bafkets, mats, &c. and are formed into large fans, 
called viffaries. The annexed plate reprelents a branch of 
the tree, with a fection of the ripe fruit. 
BO'RAX, f A mineral cryftalline fait, which the an¬ 
cients called chryfocolla. It is not much unlike alum. If 
genuine, it hath a fweet tafie' at the firft, but afterwards 
an unCtuous one. The word borax is formed from the 
s s u s. 
modern Greek, / 3 o|«icto;, and this, probablv, from the 
Arabic, bouracon , nitre, as having been reputed a fpecies 
of that fait. The origin of borax was for a long time un¬ 
known in Europe; and many chemifts ftil! alfert that it is 
not yet fatisfaCtorily afcertained. Mr. Grill Abrahamlbn, 
however, lent fome to Sweden in the year 1772, in a cry¬ 
ftalline form, as dug out of the earth in Thibet, where it 
is called pounnxa, mypoun , and hompoun : it is faid to have 
been alfo found in Saxony in fome coal-pits. The princi¬ 
pal accounts we poffefs concerning the origin of native- 
borax, are found in the Philofophical TranlaCtions for 
1787. Mr. Blatte, who had an opportunity of enquiring 
of l’ome of the inhabitants of the place where borax is 
made, gives the following account: This labile fubftance, 
called in the language of the country fwagab, is brought 
into Hindooftan from the kingdom of jumlate, in the moun¬ 
tains of Thibet. The, place'where the borax is produced, 
is delcribed to be in a fmall valley furrounded with faowy 
mountains, in which is a lake about fix miles in circumfe¬ 
rence, the water of which is conltantly hot, fo much fo 
that the hand cannot be. held in it for any time. The 
ground round the banks of the lake is perfedfly barren, 
not producing even a blade of grafs; and the earth is 
full of a l'aline matter in fuch plenty, that, after fails of 
rain or fnow, it concretes in white flakes upon the furface, 
like the natron in Hindooftan. Upon the banks of this 
lake, in the winter feafon, when the falls of lnow begin, 
the earth is formed into fmall relervoirs, by raifing it into 
banks about fix inches high: when thel'e are filled with 
fnow, the hot water from the lake is thrown upon it, 
which, together with the water from the melted fnow, re¬ 
mains in the refervoir, to be partly ablbrbed by the earth, 
and partly evaporated by the fun; after which there re¬ 
mains at the bottom a cake, of lometimes half an inch 
thick, of crude borax, which is taken up, and referved for 
ufe. It can only be made in the winter feafon ; becauie 
the falls of fnow are indifpenl'ably requifite, and alfo be- 
caufe the faline appearances upon the earth are ltrongefi: 
at that Ieafon. When once it has been made upon any 
Ipot, in the manner above delcribred, it cannot be made 
again upon the fame place till the fnow lhali have fallen 
upon it, and diffolved three or four times; after which 
the faline efflorelcence re-appears, and it is again fit 
for the operation. The borax, in the ftate above de- 
l'cribed, is tranl’ported from hill to hill upon goats, and 
pafles through many different hands before it reaches the 
plains, which increales the difficulty of obtaining authen¬ 
tic information regarding the original manufacture. When 
brought down from the hills, it is refined from the earth 
and grois impurities, by boiling and cryftallization. Mr. 
Blane could obtain no anfvvers to any queftions regarding 
the quality of the water, and the mineral productions of 
the foil. All they could fay of the former was, that it 
was very hot, very foul, and as it were greafy : that it 
boils up in many places, and has a very ofTenfive l’mell: 
and the latter remarkable only for the faline appearances 
above deferibed. That country, however, in general, 
produces confiderable quantities of iron, copper, and fui- 
phur. After being purified, it fells in the market for 
abotit fifteen rupees per maund; and he was allured by 
many of the natives, that all the borax in India conies from 
the place above-mentioned. 
The other account of borax, in the fame volume of the 
TranlaCtions, is contained in a letter from father Jofeph 
de Rovato, prefeCt of the million in Thibet, who received 
the information from a native of the country where the 
borax is found, lent expreisly for that purpoie to him by 
the brother of the king of Nepal. This man, partiy in the 
Nepaleffi, and partly in the Hindoo language, moth which 
are underftoed by the prefect, gave the following account : 
I11 the province of Marine, twenty-eight days journey north 
of Nepal, and twenty-five to the welt of Lalfa, the capital 
of Thibet, there is a vale about eight miles broad. In a 
part of this vale there are two villages or cattles, the one 
named Scierugh, and the other Kangle, the inhabitants of 
which 
