It
blossoms in April; the flowers are a bright lilac, and I could
lay my band upon it at any time, as I have never seen it but in
one spot, where it flourishes in profusion. This is about
fourteen miles from Newera Ellia, and I have never yet collected
a specimen, as I have invariably been out hunting whenever I have
met with it.
The black pepper is also indigenous throughout Ceylon. At
Newera Ellia the leaves of this vine are highly pungent, although
at this elevation it does not produce fruit. A very short
distance toward a lower elevation effects a marked change, as
within seven miles it fruits in great perfection.
At a similar altitude, the wild nutmeg is very common throughout
the forests. This fruit is a perfect anomaly. The tree is
entirely different to that of the cultivated species. The latter
is small, seldom exceeding the size of an apple-tree, and bearing
a light green myrtle-shaped leaf, which is not larger than that
of a peach. The wild species, on the contrary, is a large forest
tree, with leaves equal in size to those of the horse chestnut;
nevertheless, it produces a perfect nutmeg. There is the outer
rind of fleshy texture, like an unripe peach; enclosed within is
the nutlike shell, enveloped in the crimson network of mace, and
within the shell is the nutmeg itself.
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