930 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



with regard to a certain nut which is sometimes washed ashore. It has 

 the size of a man's head and can be compared with two large melons 

 grown together. People call it Tavarcarre and they believe that it 

 comes from a tree growing at the bottom of the sea. The Portuguese 

 call it ' Cocos des Maldives '. It has medicinal properties and carries a 

 high prize. Very often, on account of this Tavarcarre, the servants 

 and officers of the king maltreat a poor man if he is suspected of having 

 found such a nut ; if somebody wants to take revenge on his neighbour 

 he accuses him of having a nut in his possession, in order that his 

 house may be searched, and if somebody becomes rich on a sudden and 

 within a short time, people begin to say that he found a Tavarcarre, 

 as if this were a great treasure." 



More credulous than Clusius and D'Orta as regards the wonderful 

 properties of the Sea Cocoa-nut is William Piso, a Dutch physician, 

 who had travelled in Brasil between 3 636 and 1641. and who, by his 

 writings added considerably to the scientific knowledge of the West 

 Indies, He devotes a whole chapter written in elegant Latin to the 

 " Nux Medica Maldivensium, "'. He first of all excuses himself, 

 because he gives the figure of the fruit only instead of the whole 

 plant; but nobody, he says, can expect the ilhistration of a plant which 

 has been devoured by the sea and is now growing at a depth of 16 

 fathoms. The introduction to the chapter gives a vivid idea of the high 

 ♦esteem in which the Sea Gocoa-nut was held in former centuries, and, 

 at the same time, of the way in which scientific subjects were treated 300 

 vears ago. It runs as follows: "Amongst the immense benefits which 

 the Divine Providence has showered upon mankind during the lasr 

 centuries, one of the most valuable is the discovery of so many 

 medicaments destined for the protection of the human race, because, 

 after the welfare of the soul, the health of the human body takes the 

 first place. With regard to the invention of iron machines, of which 

 our present age is boasting so much, I should rather say that they are 

 for the ruin of the nations than for their welfare. Also the art of print- 

 ing though it may be specially fit for the preservation of literary monu- 

 ments, only favours the bad zeal (kakozelia) of unable scribblers. 

 Similarly, there is no reason why we should be proud of the booty of 



1 GalieliQi Pisonis Mantissa Aromatica 8ive de Aromatam cardinalibus iiaataor, et 

 Plantia aliqnot Indicis in Medicinam receptis, relatio nova. Capnt XIX. 



