Each seed within the pod is
surrounded by a sweet, black and honey-like substance, which
contains the property alluded to.
The gamboge tree is commonly known in Ceylon as the "ghorka."
This grows to the common size of an apple tree, and bears a
corrugated and intensely acid fruit. This is dried by the
natives and used in curries. The gamboge is the juice of the
tree obtained by incisions in the bark. This tree grows in great
numbers in the neighborhood of Colombo, especially among the
cinnamon gardens. Here, also, the cashew tree grows to great
perfection. The bark of the latter is very rich in tannin, and
is used by the natives in the preparation of hides. The fruit is
like an apple in appearance, and small, but is highly astringent.
The well-known cashew-nut grows like an excrescence from the end
of the apple.
Many are the varieties and uses of vegetable productions in
Ceylon, but of these none are more singular and interesting than
the "sack tree," the Riti Gaha of the Cingalese. From the bark
of this tree an infinite number of excellent sacks are procured,
with very little trouble or preparation. The tree being felled,
the branches are cut into logs of the length required, and
sometimes these are soaked in water; but this is not always
necessary. The balk is then well beaten with a wooden mallet,
until it is loosened from the wood; it is then stripped off the
log as a stocking is drawn off the leg. It is subsequently
bleached, and one end being sewn lip, completes a perfect sack of
a thick fibrous texture, somewhat similar to felt.
These sacks are in general use among the natives, and are
preferred by them to any other, as their durability is such that
they sometimes descend from father to son. By constant use they
stretch and increase their original size nearly one half. The
texture necessarily becomes thinner, but the strength does not
appear to be materially decreased.
There are many fibrous barks in Ceylon, some which are so strong
that thin strips require a great amount of strength to break
them, but none of these have yet been reduced to a marketable
fibre. Several barks are more or less aromatic; others would be
valuable to the tanners; several are highly esteemed by the
natives as most valuable astringents, but hitherto none have
received much notice from Europeans. This may be caused by the
general want of success of all experiments with indigenous
produce. Although the jungles of Ceylon produce a long list of
articles of much interest, still their value chiefly lies in
their curiosity; they are useful to the native, but
comparatively of little worth to the European. In fact, few
things will actually pay for the trouble and expense of
collecting and transporting. Throughout the vast forests and
jungles of Ceylon, although the varieties of trees are endless,
there is not one valuable gum known to exist. There is a great
variety of coarse, unmarketable productions, about equal to the
gum of the cherry tree, etc., but there is no such thing as a
high-priced gum in the island.
The export of dammer is a mere trifle - four tons in 1852, twelve
tons in 1853. This is a coarse and comparatively valueless
commodity. No other tree but the doom tree produces any gum
worth collecting; this species of rosin exudes in large
quantities from an incision in the bark, but the amount of
exports shows its insignificance. It is a fair sample of Ceylon
productions; nothing that is uncultivated is of much pecuniary
value.
CHAPTER XI. Indigenous Productions - Botanical Gardens -
Suggested Experiments - Lack of Encouragement to Gold-diggers -
Prospects of Gold-digging - We want "Nuggets" - Who is to Blame?
- Governor's Salary - Fallacies of a Five Years' Reign -
Neglected Education of the People - Responsibilities of Conquest
- Progress of Christianity.
The foregoing chapter may appear to decry in toto the indigenous
productions of Ceylon, as it is asserted that they are valueless
in their natural state. Nevertheless, I do not imply that they
must necessarily remain useless. Where Nature simply creates a
genus, cultivation extends the species, and from an insignificant
parent stock we propagate our finest varieties of both animals
and vegetables. Witness the wild kale, parsnip, carrot,
crab-apple, sloe, etc., all utterly worthless, but nevertheless
the first parents of their now choice descendants.
It is therefore impossible to say what might not he done in the
improvement of indigenous productions were the attention of
science bestowed upon them. But all this entails expense, and
upon whom is this to fall? Out of a hundred experiments
ninety-nine might fail. In Ceylon we have no wealthy
experimentalists, no agricultural exhibitions, no model farms,
but every man who settles in a colony has left the mother country
to better himself; therefore, no private enterprise is capable of
such speculation. It clearly rests upon the government to
develop the resources of the country, to prove the value of the
soil, which is delivered to the purchaser at so much per acre,
good or bad. But no; it is not in the nature of our government
to move from an established routine. As the squirrel revolves
his cage, so governor after governor rolls his dull course along,
pockets his salary, and leaves the poor colony as he found it.
The government may direct the attention of the public, in reply,
to their own establishment - to the botanical gardens. Have we
not botanical gardens? We have, indeed, and much good they
should do, if conducted upon the principle of developing local
resources; but this would entail expense, and, like everything in
the hands of government, it dies in its birth for want of
consistent management.
With an able man as superintendent at a good salary, the
beautiful gardens at Peredenia are rendered next to useless for
want of a fund at his disposal.
