NATIVE CULTIVATION.

71

which the most important is the cocoanut (replaced in the
Iry Tamil districts by the palmyra palm), which supplies
il, fibre, thatch, food, and many of the necessaries of life,
while there are also many fruit trees, such as plantains or
bananas, jaks, breadfruits, mangoes, oranges, pomeloes,
pomegranates, pineapples, &amp;c., vegetables such as yams,
sweet potatoes, cassava, brinjal or egg fruit, bandakai or okra,
peas, beans, and other pulses, gourds and squashes, chillies,
pepper, and other spices, arecanut palm and betel pepper to
provide the materials of his unceasing chew.” or in some

COLLECTION OF CEYLON FRUIT,

districts a little tobacco. The composition of the wilderness
varies in different districts and climates, but the general
look is much the same. Careful garden cultivation, such as
is seen in Europe or America, is comparatively rare in Ceylon,
and is chiefly found in the dry north country among the
Tamils.
The greater part of the high lands other than actual forest
is occupied by ¢“chena” cultivations or is land recovering
trom chena. This isa favourite practice with the villager ; the