Ceylon. dens and is preserved for a long time, and is eaten by

the natives in different ways. The shell and the fibres, after the juice is pressed out, form excellent fattening food for cattle; and if the fruit be put under ground for two or three months, it strikes strong roots, which are also good for the food of

man.

The value of the tree, when cut down, is from four to five rix-dollars; and the annual revenue drawn by government from the duties on the exportation of palmyra timber amounts to about Arreca Nut. 25,000 rix-dollars. 4. The arreca nut is a very important article of Ceylon produce, being the best of the kind in India. The nuts are exported chiefly

Timber.

to the Coromandel and Malabar coasts; and the annual revenue derived by government from the duties on the exportation of this article may be stated at Tobacco. 125,000 rix-dollars. vated in the district of Jafnapatam, of a peculiar 5. Tobacco, which is cultiquality, and prepared in a particular manner for chewing. 6. Ceylon produces various sorts of wood, of the finest and richest kinds, for cabinet-making. The scarcest and dearest is the calamander, of a hard and close grain, beautifully veined with different shades of black and brown. The homander greatly resembles it, but the veins are not so fine. The ream wood has also very beautiful veins of the same colours, but smaller and more regularly striped. The jackwood very much resembles mahogany, and is used for the same purposes. The ebony and satin woods are well known. The sappan wood is a kind of log-wood, used for dyeing cotton cloth of a fine red, or rather very deep orange colour. 7. The pearl-fishery has been particularly described in the Encyclopædia. 8. Ceylon is rich in precious stones. Of these the most valuable are, the oriental sapphire, topaz, ruby, amethyst, and blue sapphire; the cat's-eye, which is the finest known of that kind; the tourmaline, of every shade; the amethyst, which is superior in brilliancy to that of Brazil; the cinnamon stone; the garnet, and the moon-stone, which is a species of opal. Ceylon also produces the finest jet and crystal of different tinges. Pepper, coffee, and cardamom, are likewise cultivated in Ceylon; but these productions, it is said, are not indigenous, having been introduced by the Dutch, who also made unsuccessful attempts to rear the silk-worm, and cultivate the mulberry-tree.

Precious Stones.

Pepper, Coffee, and Carda

mom.

Commerce.

As there are no manufactures of any consequence, the commerce of the island consists in the exportation of its natural productions, and the importation chiefly of rice and other grain, and cloth. The following table will show the respective value of the whole exports and imports, during a period of five years, with the amount of the duties annually collected by Government. The sums are expressed in rix-dollars.

From this table it will appear that there is a considerable commercial balance against Ceylon. This rice and cloth; and it might be removed by giving is occasioned by the great annual importations of and by the introduction of cotton, and the manu greater encouragement to the cultivation of grain, facture of that article into clothing for the natives. For these purposes our new acquisitions are emibitants; and cotton grows most luxuriantly in the nently adapted. The Candian territory has always produced more rice than was wanted by its inha interior of Ceylon. Nothing, in short, is wanted but industry and capital to render Ceylon perfectly in dependent for food and clothing.

The relative amount of the revenue and expen- Revenue, diture of the Colonial Government, during the years and Expa 1811 and 1812, was as follows:

The balances constituted by the excess of the ex penditure beyond the revenue have been covered by the issue of debentures; by the sums paid into the treasury by civil servants, for the civil fund, and bor. rowed by Government; by some balances that remained in favour of the Ceylon Government, in the hands of its agents at the presidencies of India; and by anticipating some of the public resources, which are understood to have been afterwards made good by the revenue of the pearl-fishery, in 1813. A considerable saving to the revenue might probably be effected by means of an improved method of collec tion, and by a diminution of the number of civil ser

vants.

diture.

But the greatest advantage would undoubt edly be derived from a well-directed attention to the improvement of the resources of this important colony, by stimulating the industry of its inhabitants, and encouraging the cultivation of its various articles of produce. See Lord Valentia's Travels; Asiatic Annual Register; The History of Ceylon, by Phila lethes, London, 1817; and particularly the following instructive work: A View of the Agricultural, Commercial, and Financial Interests of Ceylon, by Anthony Bertolacci, Esq. London, 1817. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. See DECOMPOSI CHEMICAL.

TION,

(H.)