possessing intoxicating properties, are also imported annually for the
same purposes, and they fetch about 6s. to 8s. the cwt.

BETEL LEAF.--_Piper Betel_, a scandent species of the shrubby
evergreen tribe of plants belonging to the pepper family, furnishes
the celebrated betel leaf of the Southern Asiatics, in which they
enclose a few slices of the areca nut and a little shell lime; this
they chew to sweeten the breath, and to keep off the pangs of hunger,
and it acts also as a narcotic.

Such is the immense consumption of this masticatory, termed Pan, in
the East, that it forms nearly as extensive an article of commerce as
that of tobacco in the West. The tax on the leaf forms a considerable
portion of the local revenue of Pinang; in 1805, the tax yielded as
much as 5,400 dollars.

Rumphius describes six species of this vine, besides several wild and
cultivated varieties. It is very easily reared in the Indian islands,
but in the countries of the Deccan requires manuring, frequent
watering and great care, and in the northern parts of Hindostan it
becomes an exotic very difficult to rear. The vine affords leaves fit
for use in the second year, and continues to yield for more than
thirty, the quantity diminishing as the plants grow older.

ARECA PALM (_Acacia Catechu_).--This is a fine, slender, graceful
tree, rising from 20 to 30 feet high, which, being a native of the
East, is found abundant in many of the forests of India, from 16 to 30
degs. of latitude. The principal places of its growth are the Burmese
territories, a large province on the Malabar coast called the
_Concan_, and the forests skirting the northern parts of Bengal, under
the hills which divide it from Nepaul, the south and west coasts of
Ceylon, the south of China, &c., the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and the
Eastern islands, it produces fruit at five years old, and continues
bearing till about its twenty-fifth year, when it withers and dies. It
thrives at a greater distance from the sea, and in more elevated
regions than the coco-nut palm. In Prince of Wales Island some
hundreds of thousands of these palms are cultivated.

The seeds or nuts form a chief ingredient in the celebrated eastern
masticatory called Pan and which seems to owe its stimulating
properties to the leaves of the _Piper Betel_. When prepared for use,
the nut is cut into slices and wrapped in the fresh leaves of the
betel pepper vine, together with a quantity of quicklime (_Chunam