Dr. E. P. Wright on Lodoicea sechellarum. 345 
the south-eastern side of the island, the property of Mr. Camp- 
bell; here the trees grow in great numbers, down even to the 
water’s edge. The largest (some are from 100 to 130 feet 
high) are met with in the valley. Male and female trees are 
found in nearly equal quantities. On this property a certain 
number of the trees are stripped of their leaves to supply the 
demand for this article at Mahé, where they are manufactured 
into hats, fans, and baskets. A certain number of nuts are 
allowed to remain on the ground to germinate, and, besides 
these, a large number fall that are never found; and a good 
number are sent to Mahé and to the Mauritius for sale. But 
unless some sudden catastrophe happen to this forest, which 
contains many thousand trees of all sizes and ages, it will long 
remain a sight well worthy of being visited by the curious. 
Another, and to my mind more magnificent, forest of this 
palm is to be met with in a.large valley situated in the moun- 
tains between the cocoa-nut plantation on the eastern side, 
over which Mr. Osucree is the agent, and the Protestant 
schoolhouse and church on the western side. A walk of 
some two hours from the worthy and hospitable agent’s house 
brings one to the summit of the mountain, and then this noble 
valley bursts upon one’s view; but in the space I allow my- 
self for these notes I cannot do justice to this subject. The 
valley may be, in its narrowest portion, about a mile wide and 
some 500 feet deep; in its centre a little rivulet commences, 
that meanders through a narrow valley looking towards the 
north-west. Here were to be seen hundreds of Verschaufeldia 
grandiflora and a Stevensonia, growing to a height of thirty to 
forty feet. In sheltered nooks there were groves of a tree fern, 
with stems fifty feet in height ; but towering like giants among 
these pigmies were very many (too many to count) of the Lo- 
doicea sechellarum, often growing in threes—two female trees, 
and between and somewhat overshadowing thema male tree. 
They were from 100 to 150 feet in height, and were in all 
stages of fruit and Hower. The spathe of the male spadix is 
smaller than the spathe of the female spadix ; and the latter, by 
the time the fruit ripens, becomes very hard and spike-like. 
It is this portion that the creoles allude to when they tell one 
that “ the fruit-stalk is supported by three strong bracts, the 
outer one of which penetrates the stalk immediately above it, 
in the underside of which nature has left a fissure accessible to 
it: by this provision the stalk is enabled to support the weight 
of fruit which hangs on it” *. I found, on all the trees that I 
* Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. viii. p. 187. Of course I do not 
ascribe this theory to my friend Mr. Ward, although I here quote from 
his interesting paper. 
