lucked from the tree; but it does not
aspire to the honor of a place at a table, where it can only appear in
the form of red currant jelly, for which it is an undeniable substitute.

Excellent blackberries and a very large and full-flavored black
raspberry grow at Newera Ellia; likewise the Cape gooseberry, which is
of the genus "solanum." The latter is a round yellow berry, the size of
a cherry; this is enclosed in a loose bladder, which forms an outer
covering. The flavor is highly aromatic, but, like most Ceylon wild
fruits, it is too acid.

The sweetest and the best of the jungle productions is the "morra."
This is a berry about the size of a small nutmeg, which grows in
clusters upon a large tree of rich dark foliage. The exterior of the
berry is brown and slightly rough; the skin, or rather the case, is
brittle and of the consistence of an egg-shell; this, when broken and
peeled off, exposes a semi-transparent pulp, like a skinned grape in
appearance and in flavor. It is extremely juicy but, unfortunately, a
large black stone occupies the centre and at least one-half of the bulk
of the entire fruit.

The jambo apple is a beautiful fruit in appearance being the facsimile
of a snow-white pear formed of wax, with a pink blush upon one side.
Its exterior beauty is all that it can boast of, as the fruit itself is
vapid and tasteless. In fact, all wild fruits are, for the most part,
great exaggerations. I have seen in a work on Ceylon the miserable
little acid berry of the rattan, which is no larger than a currant,
described as a fruit; hawthorn berries might, with equal justice, be
classed among the fruits of Great Britain.

I will not attempt to describe these paltry productions in detail;
there is necessarily a great variety throughout the island, but their
insignificance does not entitle them to a description which would raise
them far above their real merit.

It is nevertheless most useful to a sportsman in Ceylon to possess a
sufficient stock of botanical information for his personal convenience.
A man may be lost in the jungles or hard up for provisions in some
out-of-the-way place, where, if he has only a saucepan, he can
generally procure something eatable in the way of herbs. It is not to
be supposed, however, that he would succeed in making a good dinner;
the reader may at any time procure something similar in England by
restricting himself to nettle-tops--an economical but not a fattening
vegetab