SEDGES AND FLOODS 



mass of fibres, which form the valuable "coir*' used for 

 brushmaking and a variety of purposes. 



The entire outside of the fruit is covered by a smooth 

 white skin. The whole fruit is about the size of a man's 

 head, and is so light that it floats easily in the water. It 

 has in fact been carried by the waves to uninhabited islands 

 all over the South Seas. It is a very great blessing to 

 Polynesia, for a tree yields thirty to fifty nuts, and four of 

 these nuts will furnish enough food for one day. Coprah and 

 the oil extracted by boiling the inside are also valuable. 

 Spirit or toddy can be made from the young buds. The 

 leaves are used for thatching and the trunk for timber. 



There are other very curious palm fruits which are also 

 carried by water. Sir Joseph Hooker mentions the large, 

 round fruits of Nipa, as big as a cannon-ball, turned over by 

 the paddles of the steamer in the muddy waters at the 

 Ganges mouth {Himalayan Journal). 



In this country a search in the rubbish left by a spate or 

 freshet along a riverside is sure to furnish many floating 

 fruits or seeds. Most of these are small and rather difficult 

 to see. Perhaps the most interesting are those of the 

 Sedges. The real fruit is only about one-sixteenth of an 

 inch in size, but it is enclosed in a little sack or bag a quarter 

 of an inch long and with a narrow opening, so that it floats 

 quite easily. Many willow branches, pondweeds, hornweeds, 

 and the like, are also found in the rubbish left by floods, and 

 these can often take root. 



It is, however, in the exquisite modifications of those 

 fruits which are blown by the wind that we find the most 

 beautiful contrivances of all. They are effective also. 

 Seeds are often so small as to be like dust particles, and 

 such may be carried in the air to almost incredible distances. 



260 



