Mr. G. Clark on the Cocoa-nut of the Seychelles Islands. 448 
The name “ Coco-de-Mer,” or Sea Cocoa-nut, was given in 
consequence of the first specimens of it which were known having 
been found floating in the sea, into which they had been carried 
by the streams; and some of these having been met with in the 
neighbourhood of the Maldive Islands, their name was added to 
that of Coco-de-Mer. When the Seychelles archipelago was 
discovered, three of the islands composing it, Praslin, Curieuse, 
and Vile Ronde were covered with magnificent forests of this 
unique palm, and their soil strewed with its huge and singularly 
shaped nuts. The value of their shells as domestic utensils for 
various purposes was at once perceived ; and from that time to 
the present they have supplied to the inhabitants the place of 
buckets, bowls, jars, dishes, measures for grain and liquids, 
drinking-vessels, paint-pots, &c.; and they were extensively used 
among the labourmg population of Mauritius until the diminu- 
tion of the plant, and the great demand for the fruit which has 
arisen within the last few years in India and Persia, greatly 
enhanced their value. 
The palm which produces this smgular nut is the only mem- 
ber of its genus. Its systematic name is Lodoicea Seychel- 
larum. It may be termed an equatorial plant, the islands on 
which it is found lying between 4° 15! and 4° 21'S. lat., and 55° 
39 and 55° 49' KE. lon. Its stem attains a height of 80 or 90 
feet, and is quite straight, cylindrical, and smooth, but slightly 
marked throughout its length by the scars left by its fallen 
leaves. These scars are naturally more or less distant from each 
other, according to the rapidity of the growth of the plant. On 
the barren hill-sides they are scarcely 2 inches apart, while in 
the moist and fertile gorges they are as much as 3. The dia- 
meter of the stem varies, from the same causes, from 12 to 15 
inches. A stalk so long and slender, crowned by leaves of vast 
size and strength, is necessarily much influenced by the wind ; and 
in strong breezes the plants bend considerably, while their elas- 
ticity causes them to wave in the most graceful manner. The 
clashing of the leaves ina stiff gale produces a londer noise than I 
have heard from any other trees, and quite of a different nature ; 
and the occasional fall of the ponderous fruit renders a passage 
among the Sea Cocoa-nuts a somewhat dangerous affair except in 
calm weather. I have heard of an instance of a woman’s being 
struck by one while washing at a brook. A companion who 
was washing beside her was only made aware of the circum- 
stance by the fall of the nut: the victim died without a ery or 
groan. 
The stem of this, like other palms, consists of a mass of hard 
fibres, enclosing a medullary substance; but the fibrous portion 
of the stalk of the Coco-de-Mer is harder than that of any other 
