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CHAP. 12. (6.)—THE PALA: THE FRUIT CALLED ARIENA.

There is another tree1 in India, of still larger size, and even more remarkable for the size and sweetness of its fruit, upon which the sages2 of India live. The leaf of this tree resembles, in shape, the wing of a bird, being three cubits in length, and two in breadth. It puts forth its fruit from the bark, a fruit remarkable for the sweetness of its juice, a single one containing sufficient to satisfy four persons. The name of this tree is "pala," and of the fruit, "ariena." They are found in the greatest abundance in the country of the Sydraci,3 a territory which forms the extreme limit of the expedition of Alex- ander. There is another4 tree, also, very similar to this, but bearing a still sweeter fruit, though very apt to cause derangement of the bowels. Alexander issued strict orders, forbidding any one in the expedition to touch this fruit.

1 Sprengel and Bauhin are of opinion that the banana is the tree meant here; Dodonæus thinks that it is the pomegranate. Thevet says that the pala is the paquovera of India, the fruit of which is called pacona. The account is borrowed from Theophrastus.

2 The Gymnosophists, or Brahmins.

3 Called Syndraci in B. vi. c. 25.

4 It is not improbable that the Tamarindus Indica of Linnæus is the tree here alluded to: though M. Fée combats that opinion.

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