_) to
give it a flavor. The flavor is peculiar, between an herbaceous and an
aromatic taste.

All classes, male and female, chew it; they say it sweetens the
breath, strengthens the stomach, and preserves the teeth, to which it
gives a reddish hue; there is probably less objection to its use than
tobacco or opium, and its taste is more pleasant; but, if taken to
excess, it will produce stupor like other narcotics, and even
intoxication. The nuts grow in large bunches at the top, and when ripe
are red and have a beautiful appearance; they resemble the nutmeg in
shape and color, but are larger and harder. When gathered they are
laid in heaps until the shell be somewhat rotted, and then dried in
the sun, after which the process of shelling commences. The trees vary
in their yield from 300 to 1,000 nuts, averaging about 14 lbs.; which
the cultivators sell at about half a dollar (2s.) a picul of 133 lbs.
As these palms are planted usually at the distance of 71/2 feet, it
follows that the produce of an acre is about 10,841 lbs. The tree
bears but once in a year generally, but there are green nuts enough to
eat all the year long. Betel nut is a staple article of import into
China; 25,000 piculs annually is the amount returned, but there is an
immense quantity imported in Chinese junks from Hainan, of which there
is no account kept. In the single port of Canton alone, 15,565 piculs
were imported in 1844, and about 400 to Ningpo. 3,005 piculs of betel
nuts, valued at 8,700 dollars, were imported into Canton in 1850, and
as much as 4,000 tons of areca nuts are shipped annually from Ceylon.

The astringent extract obtained from the seeds of the Areca-palm
constitutes two (or perhaps more) kinds of the catechu of the shops.
According to Dr. Heyne ("Tracts Hist. and Statist. on India"), it is
largely procured in Mysore, about Sirah, in the following manner:--

The nuts are taken as they come from the tree and boiled for some
hours in an iron vessel. They are then taken out, and the remaining
water is inspissated by continual boiling. This process furnishes
Kassu, or most astringent terra japonica, which is black and mixed
with paddy criu, husks, and other impurities. After the nuts are
dried, they are put into a fresh quantity of water, boiled again;
and this water being inspissated, like the former, yields the best
or dearest kind of catechu, called Coony. It is yellowish brown, has
an earthy