400 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



in which .400 was vainly offered for a specimen; and a third, 

 where negotiations arrived at a more satisfactory termination by 

 a merchant ship, "freighted and stored complete," being offered. 

 Ignorance and superstition walking hand in hand, as they are 

 always found to do, legends of the wildest character were not 

 wanting to add weird mystery to the history of the potent 

 double nut. A wide-spread belief long prevailed that far down 

 in the valleys of the deep sea's bottom, grew green groves of en- 

 chanted palms, which faded away from the vision of any diver 

 hardy enough to attempt to reach them ; and that amongst 

 these thickets hideous griffins lurked by day, but congregated 

 by night to visit the land, where they made victims of such 

 elephants and tigers as fell in their way. To these submarine 

 griffins was also attributed the power of luring ill-fated barks 

 within the range of their influence, when the hapless mariners 

 navigating the doomed ships were instantly devoured. Backed 

 up by these fell asseverations and royal prerogative, it is not 



shoots upwards and the head increases in altitude. This con- 

 dition of matters is taken advantage of by the cocoa-nut growers, 

 as we shall see as we proceed, and it is not these alone who 

 avail themselves of the uneven, rasp-like nature of the palm 

 trunk as a means by which the treasure of the crown may be 

 reached. 



If the reader will accompany us on a ramble through a wild 

 cocoa-nut grove situated on one of the coral islands we have 

 endeavoured to describe, we will show him piles of riven cocoa- 

 nut husks, broken shells, tufts of tangled coir or cocoa fibre, 

 and numerous deep subterranean burrows beneath the roots of 

 the trees. The fragments of husk, shell, and fibre we have 

 seen are the results of the depredations of the ou ou, or great 

 cocoa-nut crab, the Birgus latro of naturalists, and the holes in 

 the earth are its dwelling-places. The annexed illustration re- 

 presents one of these robber crabs. We are not of opinion that, 

 as some observers have stated, the crab possesses the power 



to be wondered at 

 that savage majesty 

 made a rich harvest 

 of the treasures cast 

 upon the strand. 

 The kernel of the 

 nut was supposed to 

 possess all the me- 

 dical virtues, and it 

 was directed to be 

 associated with a 

 number of ingre- 

 dients just as use- 

 less and inefficient 

 as the nut - itself. 

 We read that " sea- 

 nut kernel, the ant- 

 lers of deer, pounded 

 and mixed with 

 ebony filings, red 

 coral dust, and some 

 other inert trash, 

 was capable of re- 

 storing decrepit age 

 to the full power of 

 youth." The shell is 

 held in high repute 

 by the religious 

 mendicants of the 

 East as an alms- 

 box, as a notion still 

 prevails that there 

 is a powerful at- 

 tractive influence 

 residing within it, 

 which seldom fails 

 to extract the coin 

 from the pockets 

 of even the most 



reluctant. Did a germ of truth lie hidden in this Old World I nse of his large nippers as a hammer, and when the shell gives 



way, inserts his narrow-pointed or extracting nippers, and pro- 

 ceeds to feast on the dainty, won by cunning and strength of 

 claw. Such cocoa fibre as may be formed during the process of 

 nut opening, the Birgus latro carries carefully away to his den, 

 cards it up, and lays it aside, to be used as a shelter or nest 

 when the period of shell-shifting and seclusion arrives ; and it is 

 most curious that as this period approaches a natural reservoir 

 placed beneath the tail gradually fills with clear, limpid oil, to 

 the extent of a quart or more in large specimens. This oil 

 serves by absorption to supply the waste of the tissues during 

 a species of hybernation which takes place during the formation 

 of the new shell, just as the fatty deposits laid up in the 

 tissues of the bear during his autumn feastings on ripe fruits 

 and honey, enable him, like a lamp slowly burning, to support 

 the feeble flame of life until spring and plenty come again to 

 earth and him. The cocoa-nut crab, although a denizen of the 

 grove, pays occasional visits to the sea, near which his infant 

 progeny are brought to light. He performs some rather odd 

 freaks on these sea-side excursions, but a consideration of them, 

 together with a further history of the cocoa-nut and cocoa-nut 

 consumers, must be reserved for our next paper. 



THE COCOA-NUT CRAB (Birgus latro). 



of ascending trees 

 but slightly out of 

 the perpendicular ; 

 we rather incline to 

 the belief that the 

 fruit of trees grow- 

 ing at a consider- 

 able angle, and that 

 naturally falling to 

 the earth, constitute 

 the principal food 

 supply of the crab. 

 The immensely 

 powerful and heavy 

 nippers possessed 

 by this creature en- 

 able him to rend 

 asunder the tough 

 envelope of the en- 

 cased nut with the 

 greatest ease. The 

 husk being torn and 

 slit open, the nut is 

 laid bare; this the 

 crab attacks by per- 

 forating one of the 

 three round marks 

 found on the end of 

 every nut. These 

 are devoid of shell, 

 and are easily 

 broken through and 

 converted into one 

 orifice by a series 

 of heavy and well- 

 directed blows 

 which are dex- 

 trously delivered by 

 the crab, who makes 



superstition, sea cocoa-nut shells would be still at a premium. 



Research has entirely cleared away the mist which so long 

 hung over the origin of this interesting production, which is 

 found growing in the Seychelle Islands, is now known to na- 

 turalists as Ladoicea Seychellarum, and has been on minute 

 investigation found to contain no virtues whatever to recom- 

 mend it beyond those possessed by any other member of the 

 cocoa-nut family. To return, then, to the common cocoa-nut of 

 commerce, we find it, when growing in favourable localities, and 

 within the influence of the sea breeze, reaching an altitude of 

 from sixty to eighty feet ; but it is rare to find a stem measuring 

 much over two feet in diameter at the base of the tree. 



Artists are fond of representing palms of this description 

 growing upright, but it is rare indeed that one can be found 

 which does not deviate considerably from the perpendicular. 

 In fact, almost every imaginable angle of inclination may be 

 studied in a grove of cocoa-nut palms ; trade and other pre- 

 vailing winds often influencing their line of droop or direction. 



The rough, scale-like, and pitted nature of the bark, which pre- 

 vails throughout the length of the trunk, depends on the pro- 

 gressive casting off of the old and matured fronds, as the tree 



