The
elephants simply use them as a handle for tearing up the roots,
which they bite off and devour, throwing the leaves on one side.
The wild parsnip is also indigenous to the plains on the
mountains. As usual with most wild plants of this class, it has
little or no root, but runs to leaf. The seeds are very highly
flavored, and are gathered by the natives for their curries.
There is, likewise, a beautiful orchidaceous plant, which is very
common throughout the patinas on the mountains, and which
produces the very finest quality of arrowroot. So much is this
valued in the Nepaul country in India, that I have been assured
by a person well acquainted with that locality, that this
quality of arrowroot is usually sold for its weight in rupees.
In vain have I explained this to the Cingalese; they will not
attempt its preparation because their fathers did not eat it; and
yet these same men will walk forty miles to cut a bundle of
sticks of the galla gaha tree for driving buffaloes! -their
fathers did this, and therefore they do it. Thus this beautiful
plant is only appreciated by those whose instinct leads them to
its discovery. The wild hogs plough up the patinas and revel in
this delicate food. The plant itself is almost lost in the rank
herbage of the patinas, but its beautiful pink, hyacinth-shaped
blossom attracts immediate attention. Few plants combine beauty
of appearance, scent and utility, but this is the perfection of
each quality -nothing can surpass the delicacy and richness of
its perfume. It has two small bulbs about an inch below the
surface of the earth, and these, when broken, exhibit a highly
granulated texture, semi-transparent like half-boiled sago. From
these bulbs the arrowroot is produced by pounding them in water
and drying the precipitated farina in the sun.
There are several beautiful varieties of orchidaceous plants upon
the mountains; among others, several species of the dendrobium.
Its rich yellow flowers hang in clusters from a withered tree,
the only sign of life upon a giant trunk decayed, like a wreath
upon a grave. The scent of this flower is well known as most
delicious; one plant will perfume a large room.
There is one variety of this tribe in the neighborhood of Newera
Ellia, which is certainly unknown in English collections. It
blossoms in April; the flowers are a bright lilac, and I could
lay my band upon it at any time, as I have never seen it but in
one spot, where it flourishes in profusion. This is about
fourteen miles from Newera Ellia, and I have never yet collected
a specimen, as I have invariably been out hunting whenever I have
met with it.
The black pepper is also indigenous throughout Ceylon. At
Newera Ellia the leaves of this vine are highly pungent, although
at this elevation it does not produce fruit. A very short
distance toward a lower elevation effects a marked change, as
within seven miles it fruits in great perfection.
At a similar altitude, the wild nutmeg is very common throughout
the forests. This fruit is a perfect anomaly. The tree is
entirely different to that of the cultivated species. The latter
is small, seldom exceeding the size of an apple-tree, and bearing
a light green myrtle-shaped leaf, which is not larger than that
of a peach. The wild species, on the contrary, is a large forest
tree, with leaves equal in size to those of the horse chestnut;
nevertheless, it produces a perfect nutmeg. There is the outer
rind of fleshy texture, like an unripe peach; enclosed within is
the nutlike shell, enveloped in the crimson network of mace, and
within the shell is the nutmeg itself. All this is perfect
enough, but, alas, the grand desideratum is wanting - it has no
flavor or aroma whatever.
It is a gross imposition on the part of Nature; a most stingy
trick upon the public, and a regular do. The mace has no taste
whatever, and the nutmeg has simply a highly acrid and pungent
taste, without any spicy flavor, but merely abounding in a rank
and disagreeable oil. The latter is so plentiful that I am
astonished it has not been experimented upon, especially by the
natives, who are great adepts in expressing oils from many
substances.
Those most common in Ceylon are the cocoa-nut and gingerly oils.
The former is one of the grand staple commodities of the island;
the latter is the produce of a small grain, grown exclusively by
the natives.
But, in addition to these, there are various other oils
manufactured by the Cingalese. These are the cinnamon oil,
castor oil, margosse oil, mee oil, kenar oil, meeheeria oil; and
both clove and lemon-grass oil are prepared by Europeans.
The first, which is the cinnamon oil, is more properly a kind of
vegetable wax, being of the consistence of stearine. This is
prepared from the berries of the cinnamon shrubs which are boiled
in water until the catty substance or so-called oil, floats upon
the surface; this is then skimmed off and, when a sufficient
quantity is collected, it is boiled down until all watery
particles are evaporated, and the melted fat is turned out into a
shallow vessel to cool. It has a pleasant, though , perhaps, a
rather faint aromatic smell, and is very delicious as an adjunct
in the culinary art. In addition to this it possesses gentle
aperient properties, which render it particularly wholesome.
Castor oil is also obtained by the natives by boiling, and it is
accordingly excessively rank after long keeping.
