GOMUTI, (Malay), ARENG, or Eaoo PALM (Arenga saccharifera). An impor tant palm which grows in dry ground in Cochin China and in the interior of Java, Sumatra, Celebes, and Amboyna. The stem is 20 to 40 feet high; the pinnated leaves 15 to 25 feet long. The flowers, in bunches 6 to 10 feet long, are succeeded by yellowish-brown, three-seeded, ex tremely acid berries of the size of a small apple. The stem, when young, is entirely covered with sheaths of fallen leaves, and black horsehair like fibres, which issue in great abundance from their margins; but as 6e tree increases in age, these drop off, leaving a beautiful naked col umnar stem. The strongest of the fibres, re sembling porcupine quills in thickness, are used by the Malays as styles for writing on the leaves of other palms. The finer fibres, or Ejoo fibre, well known in Eastern commerce as gomuti, are by far the most valuable. They are much used for making strong cordage, particularly for the cables and standing rigging of ships, Euro pean as well as native. Want of pliancy ren
ders them less fit for running-rigging, and for many other purposes. They need no preparation but spinning or twisting. No ropes of vegetable fibre withstand wet as well as those made of gomuti fibre. At the base of the leaves of the gomuti palm there is a fine woolly material, called `bares,' much employed in calking ships and stuffing cushions. The saccharine sap, obtained in great abundance by cutting the spadices of the flowers, is boiled by the Japanese to make a brown sugar. It is also a delicious beverage, and by fermentation yields an intoxicating wine (neroo), from which a spirituous liquor called `bruin' is made. According to Roxburgh, the pith of the tree yields sago, as much as 150 pounds being taken from a single specimen. After fruiting, the tree dies, and the stems, which become hollow, are used for troughs, spouts, etc. The young fruits are employed for making preserves.