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.

The Moodilla (_Barringtonia speciosa_) is another tree which attracts
the eye of the traveller, not less from the remarkably shaped fruit
which it bears than from the contrast between its dark glossy leaves and
the delicate flowers which they surround. The latter are white, tipped
with crimson, but the petals drop off early, and the stamens, of which
there are nearly a h