934 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X/X. 



Although the tree had been discovered at last, it still took a long 

 time before it was accurately described. Pierre Sonnerat^ gave a 

 description of it, though not a very scientific one. when on his tour to 

 New Guinea he landed upon the Isle des Palmiers (Praslin). He 

 was the first to introduce tlie tree into the Isle of France. 



The description given by Rochon- does not add any new information. 

 It is, however, interesting to hear, that it was not uncommon as late 

 as 1759 to see the nuts sold for upwards of four hundred pounds ster- 

 ling each. 



After this several botanists described the palm under dijfiferent names : 

 Graelin called it Cocos maldivica^, Giseke, Borassus sonnerati* , Com- 

 merson Lodoicea Callipyge and Cocos maritima^. Persoon. Lodoicea 

 maldivica*'. At last La Billardiere was able to give a botanical des- 

 cription of it under its present name Lodoicea sechellarum'^. to which 

 he added figures trom specimens preserved in spirits, together with a 

 representation of the tr<»e from a drawing made in the Seychelles 

 Islands bv M. Lilet. The description is followed by an account of the 

 uses of the Palm, communicated to the Museum of Natural History at 

 Paris, by M. Queau-Quincy, Correspondant et Administrateur G^n^ral 

 des Isles Seychelles. The description, however, was still deficient in 

 many points, and it was to be expected that a botanist like W. J. 

 Hooker could find no rest before he had found out everything about 

 that interesting tree. " These accounts [of La Billardiere]" he writes 

 in 1827 ''in conjunction with some nuts that Mr. Barclay and myself 

 received from our inestimable friend and correspondent, Charles 

 Telfair. Esq. of the Mauritius, only served to stimulate our curiosity ; 

 and we requested Mr. Telfair, to procure, if possible, either from the 

 Palms that he informed us were cultivated in the Isle of France, or from 



' p. Sonnorat, Voyage h, la Nouv. Gaine'e, t'aris 1776, t. p. ;-i-10, t. 3-7. Sonnerat 

 bom towards 1745, died in i8l4, spent the greatest part of his life in travels and scientific 

 observations. 



- A. M. Rochon, Voyage k Madgascar, 11. 146. 



C'/'. also Bory de Saint-Vincent, Voja^e dans les iles d' Af rique, III. 166,246. 



' Gmelin, J. F. Systema Naturae, II., p 5(!9. 



n/*. also Vi illdenow. Species I'lantarum IV. p. 402, n. 6. 



' Giseke, Lin. Prael. Ord. nat., p. 86 



C •mmerson Ms II and Palmarium Vol. 1. 1-15. 

 Persoon, C. H, Enchir II., p 630. 



La Billardiere in Annales du Mus. d' Hist. Nat. IX. p. 140, t. 13. 

 ' ■/'. also Sprengel, Systema Vegetabilium II., p. 622. 



