BREAD-FRUIT AND COCOA-PALM. 243 



sends out its leaves in a group, the tree is sometimes 

 inclosed in a pyramidal column from top to bottom, 

 most beautiful to see. 



The groo-groo is most abundant on the coast and 

 plentifully besprinkles the woods of the hillsides; it 

 can be seen anywhere in long ranks on the ridges, 

 and in clumps and groups by the roadside. It is not 

 as tall as either the cocoa or the palmiste, is stouter 

 than the mountain palm, and with a denser head 

 than either of them. Its leaves are curled laterally 

 from the mid-rib, and droop feathery and plume-like. 

 It covers all the hills and upper valleys along the sea- 

 coast, and seems to take the place the tree-fern oc- 

 cupies in similar localities in other islands. 



All the palms are beautiful : the mighty palmiste, 

 towering to a height of one hundred and fifty feet, 

 with its column-like trunk and spreading head of long 

 leaves, is unsurpassed in grandeur. The cocoa palm, 

 perhaps, is the most picturesque, as its stem is so 

 slender, and its loose leaves droop so gracefully, wav- 

 ing with every breeze, ever and anon disclosing its 

 wealth of fruit. Nothing can be more picturesque 

 than a cocoa bending above a thatched hut ; than a 

 group of cocoas on the bank of a stream reflecting 

 back their beauty. If utility were considered, then 

 certainly the cocoa would bear away the palm, as it 

 assuredly is the palm of this tropic zone. The moun- 

 tain palm, found only in the high woods and on 

 elevated ridges, has a slenderer stem, and its long 

 leaves give it a resemblance to the cocoa. The 

 areca palm, the seeds of which are used with the 

 famous betel nut, with small straight stem and a 

 single tuft of plumes, is a very ornamental tree. No 



