[Footnote 1:  Pentaptera tomentosa (Rox.).]

One venerable patriarch of this species, which grows at Mutwal, within three miles of Colombo, towers to so great a height above the surrounding forests of coconut palms, that it forms a landmark for the native boatmen, and is discernible from Negombo, more than twenty miles distant.  The circumference of its stem, as measured by Mr. W. Ferguson, in 1850, was forty-five feet close to the earth, and seven yards at twelve feet above the ground.

The timber, which is durable, is applied to the carving of idols for the temples, besides being extensively used for less dignified purposes; but it is chiefly prized for the bark, which is sold as a medicine, and, in addition to yielding a black dye, it is so charged with calcareous matter that its ashes, when burnt, afford a substitute for the lime which the natives chew with their betel.

Some of the trees found in the forests of the interior are remarkable for the curious forms in which they produce their seeds.  One of these, which sometimes grows to the height of one hundred feet without throwing out a single branch, has been confounded with the durian of the Eastern Archipelago, or supposed to be an allied species[1], but it differs from it in the important particular that its fruit is not edible.  The real durian is not indigenous to Ceylon, but was brought there by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century.[2] It has been very recently re-introduced, and is now cultivated successfully.  The native name for the Singhalese tree, “Katu-boeda,” denotes the prickles that cover its fruit, which is as large as a coco-nut, and set with thorns each nearly an inch in length.

[Footnote 1:  It is the Cullenia excelsa of WIGHT’s Icones, &c. (761-2).]

[Footnote 2:  PORCACCHI, in his Isolario, written in the sixteenth century, enumerates the true durian as being then amongst the ordinary fruit of Ceylon.—­“Vi nasce anchora un frutto detto Duriano, verde et grande come quei cocomeri, che a Venetia son chiamati angurie:  in mezo del quale trouano dentro cinque frutti de sapor molto excellente.”—­Lib. iii. p. 188.  Padua, A.D. 1619.]

The Sterculia foetida, one of the finest and noblest of the Ceylon forest-trees, produces from the end of its branches large bunches of dark purple flowers of extreme richness and beauty; but emitting a stench so intolerable as richly to entitle it to its very characteristic botanical name.  The fruit is equally remarkable, and consists of several crimson cases of the consistency of leather, within which are enclosed a number of black bean-like seeds:  these are dispersed by the bursting of their envelope, which splits open to liberate them when sufficiently ripened.