030 



the contents of the interior being scooped out. The negroes carry 

 them suspended from the top of a stick. They will contain from six 

 to eight pints of water. They are an object of commerce for this 

 reason, and highly prized by sailors from their not being subject to 

 breakage. They can be graved, and will take a most excellent polish. 

 When sawn in two, these shells serve as dishes and plates for the 

 negroes. Brooms and baskets are made of the ribs of the leaves, 

 and mattresses and pillows are stuffed with the down attached to the 

 leaves. The pistil of the flowers gives, when ripe, a spherical fruit of 

 from eight to ten inches in diameter. The seed-vessel is about two 

 feet long, and three inches in diameter, studded with small yellow 

 flowers, issuing from the angular projections, which resemble those 

 of a pine apple. When stripped of its hair, this fruit, raulieris cor- 

 poris bifurcationem * * * representat. Another fact 

 connected with this singular production is, that the smell arising from 

 it after some days is so offensive (resembling human excrement, 

 * * * * * * ) that its vicinity is 

 hardly bearable, which increases the longer it is kept\ In proportion 

 as the fruit dies, the jelly is changed into a hard kernel like a horn. 

 The stem of the leaves proves highly serviceable in constructing the 

 negro huts and the cottages of the lower order of farmers, while from 

 the young leaves, when dry and cut into twists and lashes, hats are 

 manufactured of a superior quality, which are universally worn in the 

 islands by all classes male and female. The old leaves serve to cover 

 the roofs. With one hundred leaves a commodious cottage may be 

 erected, covered in, doors made, with windows and partitions to 

 chambers. At Praslin most of the cottages of the labourers are thus 

 built. Besides these purposes, there are many more to which this 

 extraordinary fruit is applied. So important is this tree to the Sey- 

 chelles that its loss would be more severely felt than that of any, pro- 

 duction of which they can boast, yet its cultivation appears to be 

 totally neglected. It is an extraordinary fact that the tree which 

 bears the nut is known only at the Seychelles, and even there is con- 

 fined to two islands alone, all efforts to transplant them to others hav- 

 ing proved fruitless, though the whole group apparently possess 

 the same soil and climate. Praslin and Curieuse are the two upon 

 which they flourish, growing in the interstices of the rocks. Immedi- 

 ately at the junction of the leaves with the trunk of the tree, hang 

 the nuts and seed ; the former about a foot long and eight inches 

 thick. The Indians held these nuts in high estimation, attributing to 

 them many curious and salutary properties, and, indeed, the value set 



