1869.] Botany and VegetaMe Physiology, 99 



Islands : he stayed there some time, maldng vakiable observations 

 on botanical and zoological subjects. One matter which very 

 greatly occupied his attention was the condition and growth of the 

 forests of Lodoicea — the celebrated Double Cocoa-nut of these 

 islands. Bsfore the Seychelles were discovered, the nuts used to 

 be picked up floating on the seas, and were considered rarities of 

 extraordinary value : at length their home was discovered, and now 

 their whole history is known, excepting how or whence they came 

 to the Seychelles. There is no palm like them, that can be possibly 

 pointed to as an ally, or as a possible descendant from a common an- 

 cestor, unless we pitch the date of that ancestor far back in time. 

 And this is what we must do ; we must suppose that for ages the 

 Lodoicea has grown on the Seychelles, and has become so modi- 

 fied in that great space of time, that it is now quite unlike any 

 other palms in many important particulars. It was feared, some 

 time since, that the Double Cocoa-nut was about to become extinct, 

 hke most other living things formed in the microcosm of an ocean- 

 island, when exposed suddenly, through man's agency, to the influ- 

 ence, more or less, of the macrocosm ; but this fear was set at rest, 

 and Dr. Wright tells of several large forests containing thousands 

 of these trees, many from 100 to 150 feet in height. Dr. Wright 

 finds that the growth of the stem depends very much on the soil in 

 which it grows. Of a number planted in 1812 on Silhouette, some 

 flowered and bore fruit in 1851, being then 26 feet high and 4 feet 

 in diameter at the base ; whilst others which, though close by, were 

 in very poor soil indeed, had no stems at all, and have borne neither 

 fruit nor flowers to this day. It is unsafe. Dr. Wright thinks, to 

 judge of the rate of growth of trees by ])lanted specimens. 



The "Haofash" of Cochin China. — The 'Moniteur' gives an 

 interesting account of a tree called Ilaofash, which grows on the 

 mountains of Baria, in French Cochin China. It grows wild in 

 the forests, hidden among Lianas and other creepers, which render 

 the wooded mountains of that country almost impervious to the 

 traveller. Nor do the inhabitants, generally speaking, know the 

 botanical or medicinal properties of this plant, so that it remains a 

 secret in the hands of the bonzes and physicians. MM. Condamine 

 and Blanchard, two French travellers, have at length succeeded, after 

 much fruitless search, in finding this tree — having bribed a bonze 

 to disclose it to them. The bark is stripped from the tree in its 

 third year, when it is about 24 feet in height. The operation is 

 performed in June, when the tree has neither blossoms nor fruit ; 

 it is hewn down, and then denuded of its bark methodically in 

 slices about 2 feet long and 3 or 4 inches broad. The bark of the 

 Haofash is outwardly of an ash-gray colour, and inwardly brown ; 

 it has a strong aromatic smell and a slightly bitter taste. When 

 chewed it reddens the saliva; it is a powerful styptic; it is ad- 



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