THE COCO DE MER 133 



Valley, and spent the afternoon amongst these 

 remarkable double-cocoanut trees, which are 

 found in a wild state nowhere except in this one 

 small valley. They are not so tall as the common 

 cocoanut trees, but the leaves are much larger 

 and of a great breadth. The fruit is of immense 

 size, somewhat resembling a huge double-cocoanut, 

 and is said to take many years to ripen ; its kernel 

 is of a grey jelly-like substance, and the taste is 

 very insipid — far inferior to that of the common 

 cocoanut. The principal use to which the nut 

 is put is for the manufacture of bowls for water 

 or food ; the shells, when split in half, make 

 capacious basins or dishes, and are largely used 

 by the natives of India for rice. 



The first description of the Coco de Mer was 

 given to some of the fruit found floating in the 

 open sea, which was supposed to belong to a sea 

 plant, and so received the name of "Coco de Mer." 

 When the Seychelles were discovered, the fruit 

 of these trees in Praslin was found to be identical 

 with that of the so-called Coco de Mer. Many 

 of the trees have now been introduced into Mahe, 

 but their growth is exceedingly slow, and, so far 

 as I know, they have not as yet borne fruit. 



During the night the yacht lay at anchor at 

 the foot of the Coco de Mer Valley, and early in 

 the morning we started for North Cousin, a small 

 islet to the south and east of Praslin. As we 

 made our passage the wind rose ; rain fell in tor- 



