The Coco- Nut. 273 



the more open to the sea-breeze, the more extensively 

 does it prevail, and the more powerfully attract the 

 attention of approaching voyagers. In some parts of 

 Trinidad, all along the shore, in the very sand of the 

 beach, it constitutes an almost continuous fringe or 

 border. Ceylon is perhaps the most distinguished of the 

 many abiding places of the coco-nut, in respect of the 

 immensity of the number of trees. Meyen tells us that 

 " in the south of Ceylon there is a forest of the coco-palm 

 which stretches along the sea-shore for twenty-six English 

 miles, is several leagues broad, and contains about eleven 

 millions of full-grown trees." * Here they grow so near 

 to the sea, as to be often washed by the surf. In this 

 loveliest of islands, the Isle of Wight of Hindostan, the 

 coco-palm is a domesticated tree. The natives have a 

 saying that to ensure its prosperity, you must walk under 

 it, and talk under it, the sense being that it needs guard- 

 ing, since, otherwise, in the wilder parts of the country, 

 it is sure to be thrown down by the elephants. In 

 Queensland, on the Pioneer river, upon a low-lying sandy 

 seaside deposit, there is a grove of planted coco-palms, 

 so verdant and so promising that the colonists look upon 

 it as if on the discovery of a new gold-mine. 



Eminently nutritious, it may be worth mentioning that 

 coco-nut kernel, broken up small, makes not only very 

 palatable little biscuits and macaroons, but the kind of 

 tart that invites one to come again. 



*" Outlines of the Geography of Plants," Ray Society, 1846, 

 P- 33 2 - 



2N 



