546 Dr. E. P. Wright on Lodoicea sechellarum. 
examined, a parenchymatous barky layer, that in trees that 
had fallen for some time was easily peeled off. This barky 
layer was very curiously pitted; this pitting was caused by 
the intrusion into the parenchymatous layer, and piercing 
through it, of the woody fibres of the stem; but without illus- 
trations it would not be easy to explain this structure, and I 
must therefore reserve it for another occasion. Some of the so- 
called “ bowls” were met with on the mountain-slopes: here I 
need only add that sections made through both young and old 
trees revealed no peculiarity of structure in this portion of 
the stem other than what is met with im almost all palms. 
From an examination of all these forests, I arrived at the 
conclusion that the growth of the stem depended very much 
on the soil in which it grew; and I was pleased at being able 
to determine this by the following facts. Many nuts have 
been planted on Isle St. Anne, in different parts of Mahé, and 
at Silhouette, and the date of the planting of these nuts is in 
many cases known with great accuracy. Thus Mr. Charles 
Savi planted some seven or eight at Silhouette in one long 
row, some twenty feet apart, on the side of a mountain, but 
only some two or three feet above high-water mark; the nuts 
were planted at the same time, in the year 1812. Of these, 
some six germinated, and for the first year or two grew with- 
out one showing any great advantage over the other; now, 
after the lapse of fifty-six years, three of these trees (two 
females and one male) measure four feet in diameter at the 
base of their stem, which is twenty-six feet in height, and they 
bore their first fruit and flowers in the year 1851, when they 
were, as nearly as possible, forty years old: the other three 
are to this day without stems, and have borne neither fruit nor 
flowers. At first, recollecting the result of recent researches: 
into the arrest of development of the axolotl, I thought here 
might be a similar case among plants; but on a little investi- 
gation I found that the thriving Cocos de mer had fallen upon 
good ground, where they could grow abundantly, and that the 
others had fallen upon poor, stony soil, where the puzzle was 
to find from what they did get sufticient food to keep them 
alive now these fifty-five years. Many other facts like this I 
could quote; but sufficient has been said to show the danger of 
drawing conclusions as to the slow growth of trees from their 
slowness of growth under cultivation: and this leads me to 
say a few words as to my hopes of introducing these trees into 
this country. 
I brought with me, in December 1867, to Alexandria, three 
young trees, about three years old, of this palm. The weather 
was too cold at this period of the year to permit their being 
