and the Areca^nid Tree. 327 



nuts cannot be formed in it : all the flowers being com- 

 presseil bv the ligature must necessarily produee abortion. 



Between the third and titth day, aecording to the season 

 and the vigour of the plant, the bud is truneated at its ex- 

 tremity bv an amputation ol" about the length of two or 

 three inches; this operation is performed with a knife 

 shaped like a crescent, and well sharpened, that the end 

 which is cut n)av be smooth-; it is carefully repeated morn- 

 ing and evening after the ealoit has been collected. The 

 cidnu does not begin to issue from the bud till the second 

 and sometimes the fourth day after the amputation of the 

 spath ; but when it begitis to flow with a certain force, it is 

 received in a vessel which is generally of earthen ware. 

 The fHjuor issues drop by drop from this kind of teat, if I 

 3nay use the expression in speaking of vegetables. The bud 

 prepared in this manner gives nearly a quart of cuhm \\\ 

 twcaiy-four hours. '1 his quantity is always proportional 

 to the force of the tree, and the care taken to water it : the 

 case is the same with the number of buds in each tree, 

 which, without exhausting it, can be applied to this purpose. 

 Three or four spaths of a vigorous ])alm may be made to 

 produce liquor al the same time ; but a weak tree by this 

 method would be destroyed. Frequent irrigation, and salt 

 ^sprinkled three or four times in the year around thu roots, 

 arc the certain means of strengthening tliis vegetable, and 

 of causing it to produce abundantly. 



But whatever care may be taken in the cultnre of the 

 plantations, ailou must not be extracted from all the buds 

 .•firoduced bv a coco-nut tree in the course of a year; lor, 

 however robust it miglit be, it would soon be exhausted. 

 On this account, one bud in three, at least, must be left ft>r 

 fructilication. 



This palm, like all those trees of the same species, haying 

 a very smooth and lofty stem, leaves no hold to enable a 

 person to climb up it, in order to reach the crown where 

 the buds are situated, and to prepare them by the processes 

 above described for yicldin<r(»/fw. It was liierefore neces- 

 sary that this obstacle shoidd be surmounted ; and that a 

 method of getting to the to}), witliout danger to the c/iafias, 

 should be discovcTed ; [ sh;<ll therefore givt- a brief account 

 of that adopted for this purpose, which is exceedingly sim- 

 ple, but thosL- w ho practise it must have been habituated lo 

 it from infancy. 



Kurmshed with a large leather thong, having atoneuf it-- 



oxtreniiticsastrong knot, and which is open at the oth' r end, 



the chana puts it round lii« iiodv, and around the trutdi ot 



X 4 ih'- 



