38 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
The Fig tree, is of a large size,- but neither its leaves or fruit resemble those of 
the same name so common in Europe. The figs are of the same shape, but they 
grow in bunches'at the end of the branches. Its juice when dried becomes an 
elastic gum. 
The Ebony tree. Its bark is white, with a large and stiff leaf, which is pallid 
beneath, and whose upper surface is verdant. Its heart alone is black, while its top 
is white. In a trunk of six inches square there is not more than two inches of 
ebony. The wood of it, in a fresh state, smells like human excrement, and its flower 
throws forth the odour of the clove : it produces a fruit {ike the medlar, full of a 
viscous juice, which is sweet, and of an agreeable flavour. There is also a kind of 
ebony, whose surface is white with black veins. 
The Lemon tree does not produce fruit but when it grows in cool and moist situ¬ 
ations. Its lemons are small, but full of juice. 
The Orange tree loves the same damp soil, and its fruit is either bitter or sour. 
It abounds in the environs of Grand Port; but the China orange tree is rare, even 
in private gardens. 
There is a kind of Sandal wood, though by no means common; its colour is of 
a greyish white, and it emits a faint odour. 
The Vacoa, is a kind of small palm tree, whose leaves grow in a spiral form round 
the trunk. They serve to make mats and sacking. 
The Latanier,* is a larger tree of the palm species; on its summit it produces leaves 
in the shape of a fan. They are used as coverings for houses: though but one is 
produced in the course of a year. 
The Palm, (Palmistet) is the most lofty of the forest; on its top it bears a bunch of 
palms, from whence proceeds a sprout, which is the only part that is esculent, and to 
obtain it the tree itself must be cut down. This vegetable, which is called a cab¬ 
bage, is formed by young leaves rolled up together: it is very tender, and of an 
agreeable taste. - 
The Manglier, grows in the x sea; its branches and roots twine along the sand, 
and are so interlaced that it is impossible to disembark where these trees grow. 
The wood produces a dye of a red colour. The greater part of them have but a 
very thin bark, and some of them nothing more than a slight skin; in which they 
particularly differ from those of the north, where considerate nature preserves them 
• Corypfaa umbraculifera, Linn . f Palma- dactilifera latifolia. 
