THE Areca is a Fruit whereof there are two Sorts; to wit, one that is half round, and the other pyramidal: These small Fruits resemble one another entirely; especially within, they are like a broken Nutmeg, and are brought to us from several Parts of India; but as we trade in them no otherwise than as a great Rarity, I shall not trouble you further about them, only that the Tree, bearing the Areca, is from a Branch of the Peppers already describ'd.
Areca Palmae Species. Scalig. Areca five Fanfel Clus. in Garz. Ludg. Palma cujus fructus sessilis Fanfel dicitur. Avellana Indica. The Palm, whose Fruit is call'd Fanfel, or the Indian Filbert, is a Species of the Palm Tree, very high and straight, that grows in Malabar, and several other Parts of India. The Flowers are small, white and almost without Smell; the Fruit is of an oval Figure, the Size of a Nut, having a green Bark or Peel, at first, which becomes very yellow as it ripens, soft and very hairy. The Bark or Rind being taken away, there appears a Fruit the Size of a Filbert, sometimes half round, sometimes pyramidal; which being broken, resembles that of a Nutmeg in Fineness.
The Fruit which the Indians call Chofool, not being as yet half ripe, makes those that eat it giddy and drunk: When ripe it is insipid and astringen. They reduce it to Powder after having dry'd it in the Sun, and having mix'd it with Betle, burnt Oyster-Shells, Camphire, Aloes Wood, and a little Ambergrise, they form them into Troches, which they chew in their Mouths to make 'em spit and purge the Head.