COCOA-NUTS. 219 



Take away the cocoa-palm from the numerous islands of 

 the Pacific Ocean, and the majority of them would at once 

 become uninhabitable, for these useful trees, often alone 

 and unassisted, furnish the native population with food 

 and shelter and clothing ; without their loving gifts these 

 tropical isles would be dreary and desolate wastes. 



Dwelling in the East and in the West this one palm 

 alone is said to furnish food for no less than a hundred 

 millions of human beings besides a countless host of 

 animals. 



How say you, is not this a noble tree ? Is not its life 

 a precious one ? 



Ceylon, however, that land of tropical profusion, is pre- 

 eminently the home of the cocoa-nut tree, although, as we 

 have intimated, it can lay no claim to being the place of 

 its birth. 



In the most ancient voyages on record mention is made 

 of the " beautiful cocoa-nut groves" of this great island, 

 which, in days gone by, was called "Taprohane," and 

 again, " Serendih," while still further back it is supposed 

 to be identical with the far-famed "Tarshish" of the 

 Scriptures. 



Those very groves described by the Arabian voyagers 

 are still flourishing at the present day, only greatly en- 

 larged and improved, for so valuable have their products 

 become that the prosperity of the entire island is now in- 

 timately connected with their cultivation. And yet for 

 many years, for long centuries, in fact, the Cingalese lived 

 in total ignorance of the precious treasure which girdled 

 their shores. 



True, as we read in the ancient chronicle of Ceylon, the 

 " Mahawaiiso," the small red cocoa-nut, grew in the inte- 

 rior of the island, and its milk was employed in manufac- 

 turing cement for building temples ; but further than this 



