Note 6 — X

Pili is very common in South Luzon, Samar, and Leyte; it is to be found in almost every village. Its fruit, which is almost of the size of an ordinary plum but not so round, contains a hard stone, the raw kernel of which is steeped in syrup and candied in the same manner as the kernel of the sweet pine, which it resembles in flavor. The large trees with fruit on them, “about the size of almonds and looking like sweet-pine kernels,” which Pigafetta saw at Jomonjol were doubtless pili-trees. An oil is expressed from the kernels much resembling sweet almond oil. If incisions are made in the stems of the trees, an abundant pleasant-smelling white resin flows from them, which is largely used in the Philippines to calk ships with. It also has a great reputation as an anti-rheumatic plaster. It is twenty years since it was first exported to Europe; and the first consignees made large profits, as the resin, which was worth scarcely anything in the Philippines, became very popular and was much sought in Europe.