COCOA-NUTS. 225 



Let us now pass on to the bud which contains the incip- 

 ient terminal leaf; this is sometimes used as an article of 

 food by both Europeans and natives; boiled it becomes 

 an excellent cabbage; steeped in vinegar it forms an 

 agreeable pickle; but, useful as the terminal bud cer- 

 tainly is in these capacities, it is to be regretted that it is 

 ever so employed, as its removal necessitates the death of 

 the tree. 



Every one has heard of "toddy;" this is a sweet juice 

 obtained by wounding the unexpanded flower, and beating 

 it daily with a stick, which operation facilitates the flow 

 of the sap ; a healthy blossom will yield from one to two 

 quarts of juice daily for more than a month. 



By boiling this suri, as it is called, a coarse, brown sugar 

 is obtained, which is termed pageny, one gallon of the suri 

 yielding a pound of sugar; while still warm, the thick 

 syrup is poured into cocoa-nut shells, where it soon be- 

 comes solid. By a subsequent operation the pageny itself 

 furnishes a most excellent molasses. 



The surif in its half fermented state, furnishes the yeast 

 used by the bakers of Ceylon, and reaching the stage of 

 acetous fermentation it becomes as fine a vinegar as one 

 need wish for. 



Not yet have we measured the capacity of this wondrous 

 juice elaborated by the wounded flower, nor yet have we 

 seen the fullness of the return of "good for evil," of 

 which it furnishes so illustrious an example. 



There is a form in which the suri is still more valuable 

 than as sugar, molasses, yeast, or vinegar ; this is the 

 " toddy," to which we have already alluded. In its middle 

 state of fermentation suri is transformed into this cele- 

 brated liquor, which, intoxicating in itself, is rendered 

 still more so by the addition of the leaves of a species of 

 datura. 



