The paku bindu (Cycas circinalis) has the general appearance of a young, or rather dwarf coconut-tree, and like that and the nibong produces a cabbage that is much esteemed as a culinary vegetable.  The tender shoots are likewise eaten.  The stem is short and knobby, the lower part of each branch (if branches they may be called) prickly, and the blossom yellow.  The term paku, applied to it by the Malays, shows that they consider it as partaking of the nature of the fern (filix) and Rumphius, who names it Sayor calappa and Olus calappoides, describes it as an arborescent species of osmunda.  It is well depicted in Volume 1 table 22.

MAIZE.

The maize or turkey-corn (Zea mays), called jagong, though very generally sown, is not cultivated in quantities as an article of food, excepting in the Batta country.  The ears are plucked whilst green, and, being slightly roasted on the embers, are eaten as a delicacy.  Chili or cayenne pepper (capsicum), called improperly lada panjang or long pepper, and also lada merah, red pepper, which, in preference to the common or black pepper, is used in their curries and with almost every article of their food, always finds a place in their irregular and inartificial gardens.  To these indeed their attention is very little directed, in consequence of the liberality with which nature, unsolicited, supplies their wants.  Turmeric (curcuma) is a root of general use.  Of this there are two kinds, the one called kunyit merah, an indispensable ingredient in their curries, pilaws, and sundry dishes; the other, kunyit tummu (a variety with coloured leaves and a black streak running along the midrib) is esteemed a good yellow dye, and is sometimes employed in medicine.  Ginger (Amomum zinziber) is planted in small quantities.  Of this also there are two kinds, alia jai (Zinziber majus) and alia padas (Zinziber minus), familiarly called se-pade or se-pudde, from a word signifying that pungent acrid taste in spices which we express by the vague term hot.  The tummu (Costus arabicus) and lampuyang (Amomum zerumbet) are found both in the wild and cultivated state, being used medicinally; as is also the galangale (Kaempferia galanga).  The coriander, called katumbar, and the cardamum, puah lako, grow in abundance.  Of the puah (amomum) they reckon many species, the most common of which has very large leaves, resembling those of the plantain and possessing an aromatic flavour not unlike that of the bay tree.  The jintan or cumin-seed (cuminum) is sometimes an ingredient in curries.  Of the morunggei or kelor (Guilandina moringa L. Hyperanthera moringa Wilden.), a tall shrub with pinnated leaves, the root has the appearance, flavour, and pungency of the horse-radish, and the long pods are dressed as a culinary vegetable; as are also the young shoots of the pringgi (Cucurbita pepo) various sorts of the lapang or cucumber, and of the lobak or radish.  The inei or henna of the Arabians (Lawsonia inermis) is a shrub with small light-green leaves, yielding