PANDANUS ODORATISSIMUS. Linn.
This grows along the coasts and in moist parts of all the Peninsula of India, and its leaves are naively manufactured into mats, baskets, and The fibre of the leaf is white, soft, glossy, 1 for cordage, but it has been found well kl for the preparation of a good quality of sir, also for good. sacking. Its fibrous aerial are much employed as paint brushes. The of the Idulgrave Archipelago are said to the juicy pulp and the pleasant kernels of the lit. The wood is hard and durable; the flowers are used in garlands, and the red and yellow nuts as ornaments. All soils and situations seem to suit it equally well, and it flowers chiefly during the rainy season. It is much employed to make hedges, for which it answers well, but requires too much room. The lower yellow pulpy part of the drupes, and also the tender white base of the leaves, are eaten raw or boiled during scarcity.
The fusiform roots are composed of tough fibres, which basket-makers split and use to tic their work with ; they are also so soft and spongy as to serve the natives for corks. In the Mauritius, its leaves are employed for package bags for the transport of coffee, sugar, and grain. As soon as gathered, the spines on their edges and dorsal nerve are stripped off, and the leaf divided into slips of the breadth proper for the use they are required for ; this operation is performed with the blade of a common straight knife ; they are then laid in the sun for a few hours to dry. When required for working into mats, the slips are passed under the blade of a knife, applied with moderate pressure, to remove all asperities on their surface, which gives them a polish, and makes them plain and more convenient to the hands. With the leaves, the natives of Southern India and the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands make a fine kind of sleeping mat, which they stain yellow and red with cassia leaves and Vatinga cottay. They are also used to make the common
kind of umbrellas, called by the Tamils Talay elley kedri. The fine furuitures of Madras are packed in mats of these leaves. The natives of India are fond of the scent of the flower, which they place among their clothes. In the district of Ganjam, the flowers are said to be frequently tenanted by a small and very venomous snake. The male flowers are exceedingly fragrant, and great favourities with the Burmese. The flower is constantly referred to by the Sanskrit poets by the name Kutaki, and is the Keora and Ketgi of the Hindus. The Arabs call it Kazi, and Avicenna described it under the name of Armak. Oil im pregnated with the odour of its male flowers, called Keore-ka-atr, costs two rupees the tole; and the distilled waters are higblyesteemed both for their odour and their medicinal use as stimulants. This tree is often alluded to in the Hindu drama. In Malati and Madhava' the latter says, ever friend to love, now spreads its shade ; Faint in the east the gentle moonlight gleams, Pale as the palm's sear leaf, and through the air The slowly rising breezes spread around The grateful fragrance of the ketaki.' The Hindus use the flowers in all the cere monies made in honour of Puffier, Subramaniar, Mariamma, and Vishnu, but never in those of Siva.—Eng. Cyc. ; G•aham's Cat. of Plants, p. 227 ; Chow-Chow, p. 299 ; Cal. Cat. Ex., 1862; Mad. Ex. Jur. Rep.; Singapore Cat. Ex., 1862; Sonnerafs Voyage, p. 9 ; MA. ; Rohde, MSS.; .af. E. of 1857 ; bins.; Mason.