The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2. Finlayson GeorgeЧитать онлайн книгу.
filled with a transparent fluid, would seem to be the organ by which it produces this effect. These are no sooner touched than they discharge the fluid they contain. The plant soon loses this power, after having been removed from the water. The comparative scantiness of the Cryptogamiæ is amply compensated for by the number, variety, beauty, and utility, of the more interesting order of Phænogamous plants. Of the former, the abundance of a few individuals is considerable, whilst, respecting the latter order, we are less impressed with the extent to which individuals exist, than with the great variety which they offer, a remark still more applicable to the zoology of this region than the botany.
Among the vegetable productions applicable to economical, commercial, and other purposes, is the Gambir; Nauclea Gambir and Aculeata, Linnæi, or nat. ord. Rubiaceæ of Jussieu.
Gambir, Terra Japonica, or Catechu, is obtained in large quantities from the leaves of this plant. The process is both simple and cheap. The leaves are collected three or four times a year: they are thrown into a large cauldron, the bottom of which is formed of iron, the upper part of bark, and boiled for five or six hours, until a strong decoction is obtained. The leaves are then withdrawn, and allowed to strain over the vessel, which is kept boiling for as many hours more, until the decoction is inspissated. It is then allowed to cool, when the Catechu subsides. The water is drawn off; a soft soapy substance remains, which is cut into large masses. These are further divided by a knife into small cubes about an inch square, or into still smaller pieces, which are laid on frames to dry. This Catechu has more of a granular, uniform appearance than that of Bengal. It is perhaps also less pure. The price in the market is four dollars per pecul, or 133½ lbs. It is exported to Java and the other eastern islands, where it is chiefly used for chewing with the betel leaf. The leaves of the plant when chewed give a very astringent taste, which is soon followed by a sweet, agreeable, and aromatic flavour.
We have already observed, that the most luxuriant vegetation of spontaneous growth affords no certain proof that the soil which has produced it will prove equally favourable for the production of the usual objects of culture. The soil of Singapore, however, would seem to be highly favourable for the cultivation of those products which are confined to intertropical regions. The Malay race, accustomed to a roving, unsettled life, have paid but little attention to agricultural pursuits. In this respect they are much in the situation of the Nomade tribes of northern Asia, or the more savage banditti of the Arabian deserts. Their labours, therefore, afford no adequate means of forming an estimate of the capacity of the soil. The skill and other resources of Europeans have not yet been directed to this end; neither has the well-proved industry of the Chinese had time to produce any considerable effect. The experiments, however, which have been made by the latter in the cultivation of pepper, and in the manufacture of Terra japonica, have given good earnest of what may be expected from agricultural operations of greater magnitude. Judging from the natural appearance of the country, it may be presumed that the whole island is susceptible of a high degree of culture. The soil is gently undulating, here and there rising into low, mammated or rounded hills of inconsiderable altitude; the temperature is favourable; irrigation is abundant, and the soil of the interior parts is composed of sand and stiff clay, mixed up with a large proportion of vegetable matter, which gives it a very black appearance. There is a general tendency to the formation of swamps; but never to the extent of forming lakes. Rivulets and creeks abound in various parts of the island. The former are of the greatest value in a commercial point of view, by the facilities, as well as safety, which they afford for the transport and landing of goods. The rivulets are but of inconsiderable size. Their waters are almost always of a black colour, disagreeable taste, and peculiar odour, properties which they would appear to derive from the peculiar nature of the superficial soil over which they pass, in many parts resembling peat-moss, as has been already observed. The water, however, drawn from wells penetrating through the sandy base, is much less sensibly marked by these disagreeable qualities.
It is at the point where the fresh water of rivers and rivulets intermixes with that of the sea, that we find Mangroves chiefly to abound. The economy of these plants is so strikingly peculiar in character, that they claim great attention from every observer. The species most common on the banks of rivers, in these climates, is the Rhizophora Gymnorhiza, a tall, handsome tree, often growing to the height of forty feet, covered with a thick profusion of large, oblong, fleshy leaves, disposed in tufts at the extremities of the branches. The singular form of the fruit in this tree is too well known to require description. The descriptions of botanists are, however, but indifferent.
The stem would seem to perform the usual functions of leaves, being covered with a remarkably thin epidermis. It is frequently submerged to the height of twelve feet or more, on which occasions it doubtless performs different functions. Numerous roots are thrown down from the branches, and in this manner a single tree is often conducted, as it were on props, over a great extent of ground, rendered intricate and impervious to animals.
Another species, the Rhizophora Mangle, is more independent of the presence of fresh water; often extending laterally along the sea-beach, or growing entirely in sea-water. Other species are possessed of similar habits.
The shade of these plants is the favoured abode of innumerable tribes of insects, particularly of mosquitoes. Inhospitable, therefore, is the shade or shelter they afford to man[3].
One great purpose which these plants serve, is that of preventing the encroachment of the sea upon the land. They even overcome this tendency, and produce the opposite effect, as the coasts of Singapore manifestly evince. It may readily be conceived, therefore, how ill judged is the practice of destroying barriers of this sort. In many parts they extend for miles into the country, until the soil on which they grow has been raised above the water, when they gradually give place to trees of another description; and in this manner lands favourable for the cultivation of rice are produced. Of this description extensive tracts exist in the neighbourhood of the settlement. A slight embankment would prevent the ingress of salt water along the banks of the creeks, and retain a supply of fresh water favourable for this species of culture. As yet, however, the pepper-vine, and nauclea, which require a dry and exposed soil, are almost the sole objects of culture. The neatness, the industry, the ingenuity displayed in plantations of this sort, afford a very gratifying spectacle, and attest the great progress which the Chinese nation has made in agricultural science. The Chinese may be considered as the sole cultivators of the soil. The woods are for the most part cut down by the Malays. The Chinese clear away the incumbent wreck, selecting the best woods for domestic purposes, converting the refuse into charcoal, palings, fences, &c., and enriching the soil with the ashes of the remainder. I have not observed the manufacture of the vegetable fixed alkali, potash, to be an object of attention with them. Their plantations, whether of pepper-vines or of gambir, are uncommonly neat, well trimmed, and healthy. Their habitations are slight and temporary, inferior in many respects even to those of the Malays. They are constructed of bamboos, twigs, and rattans, and thatched with leaves of the Pandanus lævis, sewed together. They are always surrounded by a few garden shrubs, esculent roots, and vegetables. Several varieties of Musa and Amomum; several species of Arum; sometimes small plantations of Jatropha manihot, are of the most common occurrence. There is a manifest air of poverty in the dwelling of the Chinaman, and of negligence, slovenliness, and even meanness in his dress. He has scarce a stool or a bench to sit on. His furniture is scanty,—of the simplest kind, and constructed of the cheapest materials. In his culinary operations alone we observe an air of neatness and of cleanliness. It is here indeed that the Chinaman shines superior to all other Asiatics. Negligent of personal ornament, insensible to the advantages of comfortable lodging, he appears to entertain a just, nay, we may say, an exalted sense of the pleasures of good eating. To this end and aim are directed all his industry and ingenuity. The traveller who would judge of the comforts of the Chinese planter, must see him at his meals. How erroneous his judgment, were he to infer, from the sordid appearance of the labourer’s hut, a corresponding degree of penury in all other comforts. The peasant, thus indifferent to the advantages of comfortable lodging, will be found to live on the richest, though not always the most delicate fare. Pork, ducks, geese, the best kinds of fish, the rarest delicacies, are purchased at any price by the Chinese. The proportion of animal food consumed by them would appear to be incomparably greater than that used by any other description of labourers on the face of the globe. They seem to regard the quality of animal food