A grammar and dictionary of the Malay language : with a preliminary ...

DISSERTATION. ccxH
guage, may possibly be the same as the katala of the Javanese
but this is evidently far too uncertain an etymology to be relied
on. The yam, or Dioscorea, the coconut palm, and the sugar-
cane, are, I think, unquestionably Malayan, and, with the taro,
are probably the only cultivated plants that are, certainly so. The
banana, of which, according to Forster, there are 28 varieties
cultivated in the Society islands ; and the bread-fruit, of which,
according to the same authority, five varieties are in culture,
seem to be indigenous, judging b}'^ their names. So seems also
to be the citron family.
The Malayan numerals are co-extensive with the Polynesian
language, and are as follow in several of its dialects :
—
;