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leaf immediately above it, in the under side of which 

 nature has left a fissure accessible to it. By this most 

 admirable provision the stalk is enabled to support 

 the enormous weight of fruit which sometimes hangs 

 upon it in some cases, I doubt not, exceeding four 

 hundredweights. I do not pretend to have ascertained 

 this amount by actual experiment, but I have heard 

 of eleven nuts on a single stalk, the probable weight 

 of which might be forty pounds each at the time when 

 they are heaviest ; such clusters, are, however, rarely 

 met with. Four or five may be taken as the average 

 number on one stem. 



From the fructification of the female blossom to 

 the full maturity of the fruit a period of seven or eight 

 years in a virgin state without losing their fecundity. 

 It not unfrequently happens that fructification is im- 

 perfect, in which case an irregular expansion of the 

 ovary takes place and a deformed and abortive fruit 

 falls at the end of two or three years. If the fructific- 

 ation has been complete, the fruit attains its full size 

 in three or four years, and is then full of a translucent 

 jelly-like substance of a sweetish taste, highly, relished 

 by the Sechellois. This gradually dries up, and is 

 converted into a white horny kernel as hard at least 

 as Suffolk cheese, about half an inch in thickness. The 

 mesocarp (i) is a leathery substance of a brown color, 

 adhering closely to the shell. I have known but one 



(i) The Mesocarp in the middle covering of the fruit. 



