xxv.] During the existence of the Kandyan kingdom as an independent state, before its conquest by the British, the frontier forests were so thickened and defended by dense plantations of these thorny palms and climbers at different points, as to exhibit a natural fortification impregnable to the feeble tribes on the other side, and at each pass which led to the level country, movable gates, formed of the same formidable thorny beams, were suspended as an ample security against the incursions of the naked and timid lowlanders.[1] [Footnote 1: The kings of Kandy maintained a regulation "that no one; on pain of death, should presume to cut a road through the forest wider than was sufficient for one person to pass."-- WOLF'S _Life and Adventures_, p.

308.] The pasture grounds throughout the vicinity of Jaffna abound in a low shrub called the Buffalo-thorn[1], the black twigs of which are beset at every joint by a pair of thorns, set opposite each other like the horns of an ox, as sharp as a needle, from two to three inches in length, and thicker at the base than the stem they grow on.
[Footnote 1: _Acacia latronum._] The _Acacia tomentosa_ is of the same genus, with thorns so large as to be called the "_jungle-nail_" by Europeans.

It is frequent in the woods of Jaffna and Manaar, where it bears the Tamil name of _Aani mulla_, or "elephant thorn." In some of these thorny plants, as in the _Phoberos Goertneri, Thun._,[1] the spines grow not singly, but in branching clusters, each point presenting a spike as sharp as a lancet; and where these formidable shrubs abound they render the forest absolutely impassable, even to the elephant and to animals of great size and force.
[Footnote 1: Mr.Wm.Ferguson writes to me, "This is the famous _Katu-kurundu_, or 'thoray cinnamon,' of the Singhalese, figured and described by Gaertner as the _Limonia pusilla_, which after a great deal of labour and research I think I have identified as the _Phoberos macrophyllus_" (W.and A.Prod.p.

30).

Thunberg alludes to it (_Travels_, vol.iv.)--"Why the Singhalese have called it a cinnamon, I do not know, unless from some fancied similarity in its seeds to those of the cinnamon laurel."] The family of trees which, from their singularity as well as their beauty, most attract the eye of the traveller in the forests of Ceylon, are the palms, which occur in rich profusion, although, of upwards of six hundred species which are found in other countries, not more than ten or twelve are indigenous to the island.[1] At the head of these is the coco-nut, every particle of whose substance, stem, leaves, and fruit, the Singhalese turn to so many accounts, that one of their favourite topics to a stranger is to enumerate the _hundred_ uses to which they tell us this invaluable tree is applied.[2] [Footnote 1: Mr.Thwaites has enumerated fifteen species (including the coco-nut, and excluding the _Nipa fruticans_, which more properly belongs to the family of screw-pines): viz.