CAMBESSEDEA OPPOSITIFOLIA. IV. A.
Mangifera oppositifolia, Roxb.
' This indigenous tree of Tenasserim has a reddish coloured, hard, elose-grained wood, said to be durable. It produces a fruit much like a plum. There are two varieties, one bearing an intensely sour fruit, and the other one as insipidly sweet.— Mason ; Voigt.
CAMBODIA,•or the kingdom of Khmer, extends from long. 101° 30' to 104° •30' E., and lat. 10° 30' to 14° N., with an area of 62,000 square miles. It was reduced to its present dimensions in 1862, by two of its provinces being annexed to Siam. It is bounded on the S.W. by the Gulf of Siam, on the S.E. by French Cochin-China, on the N. by Laos, and oh the N.W. and W. by Battam bang and Angcbr. The flows through the kingdom. The population is 1,000,000, of whom four-fifths are the native Kho. The Chinese number 100,000. Buddhism prevails. Its capital is Phnompenh, on the Mei-kong. Cambodia town is nearly '240 miles up river. It has four provinces, Potisat, Kampong-Suai, Kampong, and Kampot-Son. For the past three centuries its independence has been lost, Siam on the one side, and Cochin-China on the other, having encroached on it. In Cambodia is the great temple of Nakhon Vat, which seems to have been built in the 10th century. Every angle of the roof, every entablature, every cornice, bears the seven-headed serpent. The outer enclosure measures 570 by 650 feet. It is a towered pyramid more than 600 feet in breadth, and rising to 180 feet at the summit of the central tower. It is built of large stones, beautifully fitted, without cement. M. Delaporte
says that the ancient Khmer temples were dedi cated to Brahmanism. At Angkor-Wat be de tached from the higher parts the chefs d'oeuvre of Cambodian sculpture,—bas•reliefs, once brilliantly gilt; pediments, —all the subjects of which M. D ela porte maintains, down to thos• which decorate the most secluded sanctuary, are devoted to the exploits of Rama and the glories of Vishnu. At Angkor-Tom, M. Delaporte visited several new monuments, on most of which he also finds on the principal pediments the exploits of Rama and Vishnu. He cleared of rubbish and explored the ancient palace of the Khmer kings, a work of magnificent and wonderful sculpture, the rising terraces of which are adorned with superb com positions in bas-relief; the enormous three-headed elephant, Iravati, is there enthroned in all the places of honour, as at the angles of all the gates of the city, where he is shown by the god Indra, accompanied by two apsaras. When the country became subject to the government of Cochin China, the trade of Cambodia was transferred to Saigon, which was occupied by the French in 1863. Cambodia river, also called the Mei-kong, discharges itself into the sea by three principal branches, of which the most western is the best for ships. Its entrance is in lat. 9° 31' N., and long. 106° 36' E. It is one of the largest rivers in Asia, and is said to rise in a lake in Yunnan.— Chin. lap. and Phil. Chr. and Der., 1881.