— ni — 



Jslancls is remarlyably healthy^ and Fever quite ua» 

 Ivuown, 



The principal forest trees are the Cocoa-nut, the 

 Filao, called there the Cedre, the Varre, from which 

 cords are made, the Tatamaka, the Badamier, and the 

 Sea-Cocoa-nut. The las tnamed is indigenous to Pras- 

 lin and for a long period was found only in that Island, 

 but as it obtained notoriety it was transplanted, and 

 is now common to several islands of the Seychelles 

 Archipelago. I was informed, when at Praslin, that 

 some yeai's ago, fifty young Coco-de-mer were for- 

 warded from that Island to the Mauritius Botanical 

 Gardens. 



This remarkable tree grows chiefly in the sides 

 of the ravines and on the slope of the mountains. It 

 shoots np, straight as an arrow to more than one 

 hundred feet.* It is like the common Cocoa-nut, 

 withont branches, but unlike the common Cocoa-nut, 

 it never bends. It has a stately, aristocratic,, royal 

 appearance, and bears on its lofty summit, a graceful 

 bunch of leaves, aud nuts of a prodigious size. Its 

 leaves are the first of the forest that are brightened 

 and warmed by the rising sun ; and, like the true 

 Christian, it can look around and down upon nature 

 and all its works, and say, " T'was Uod my Father 

 made them all." Within tlie nuts, when they are 



* Some two years ago Captain Ward of H. M. Ship Thetii<, visited 

 Praslin. He went with Mr. Briard, Manager of the Mnicy Estate, 

 to look at these trees. They came upon one which was fallen, wliich 

 rliey measured and found to lie luiiorv-iive feet lone 



