Mr. G. Clark on the Cocoa-nut of the Seychelles Islands. 449 
beauty and in great variety are made by some of the Seychelles 
ladies, and some of these productions obtained much admira- 
tion and a prize at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The nerve 
which strengthens each leaflet is employed to stiffen hats made 
of the leaf, each seam of the rows of plat being sewed over it. 
This may also be split into fibres as fine as hair, and possesses 
considerable tenacity. I have seen a little basket of very com- 
plicated and delicate structure made of this material. It was 
manufactured by a lady of the Vendries family, which is un- 
rivalled for the taste and skill displayed in the articles made 
from the Coco-de-Mer by its members. Mats of great beauty 
and unequalled durability are also made of these leaves. The 
extreme hardness and smoothness of their surface, and the 
length and strength of their fibres, are unrivalled by any sub- 
stance within my knowledge. The expanded leaf forms an 
excellent thatch, nearly equal to shingles in durability. « Its 
strength is so great that, when pinned together with little 
skewers of bamboo, it forms a basket capable of bearing nearly 
a bushel of fruit. 
The petiole forms a strong and durable paling, and is also 
sometimes used for small rafters. The trunk, when cut into 
lengths and split into palisades, is used instead of boards for 
the sides of houses, and will last, I believe, as long as any wood. 
When split in two and hollowed, it is used for gutters for con- 
veying water, and is almost imperishable. The size of the nuts 
varies greatly : I have seen some which would not hold a bottle, 
and others which were sixteen times as large. These extremes 
are rare; but a nut of ordinary size will hold from six to eight 
bottles. When intended to be preserved whole, they are left in 
a damp place till the perisperm has rotted away—a_ process 
which requires many months to complete: during this process 
it not unfrequently happens that flat-shelled snails introduce 
themselves into the nut, and grow too large to get out by the 
hole by which they entered, and die there, like the weasel in 
the fable. They are then called Cocos légers. They are then 
pierced with an auger at one end, or the extremity is sawn off; 
the orifice through which the germ sprouts is stopped up with 
a little pitch, and a withe round the cleft converts it into a con- 
venient bucket, strong and light. When sawn longitudinally, 
it forms an elliptical vessel, called Coco scié, superior to every- 
thing else for baling out boats. 
Three-lobed nuts are sometimes met with. -I have possessed 
one with five lobes, and have heard of one having as many as 
seven. The kernel of the Lodoicea contains a portion of oil; 
but its excessive hardness, and the difficulty of detaching it from 
the shell (itself so valuable), render it practically useless for oil- 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xiv. 29 
