OIL-SEEDS AND OILS 121 



is about twenty feet in height these leaf bases gradually fall 

 off, and with them the vegetation which they have supported, 

 and the trunk emerges clean and shapely. 



At its top it has a crown of enormous pinnate -shaped 

 leaves, eight, twelve, or even fourteen feet long, the leaflets 

 themselves being often more than a foot in length. 



Mr. Farquhar, in his most interesting account of the Oil 

 Palm, 1 describes how it sends forth a long green spike, which 

 shoots out upwards above the dense mass of forest growth 

 to the light and air, and having won breathing space for itself 

 unfolds its great green leaves. 



When a little tree of about three years old it begins to 

 bear male flowers, and two or three years later female ones 

 appear. These are arranged along the flower- stalks, which 

 themselves grow out from a main stalk (just like a bunch 

 of red currants). 



The main stalk sprouts at the top of the trees between the 

 trunk and the bases of the leaves, and when fully developed 

 is about seventeen inches long. The flower-stalks are at first 

 encased in a green sheath. This opens, and the flowers on 

 each side of the stalks blossom ; they are very numerous. 

 In a full-grown tree there are as many as 240 stalks, and 

 arranged along each of these about eight or ten flowers, so 

 that each spike bears altogether about 2,000 flowers. Out 

 of these 600 or so develop into complete fruits, but the 

 remaining ones, though without kernels, are very rich in oil. 

 A good bunch of fruit will weigh as much as 31 lb., and 

 a tree bears on an average five bunches in a year. 



In a forest, of course, there are trees of all ages and sizes, 

 and in the small ones it is easy to see when the fruit is ripe, 

 but in the very tall ones this is difficult. The native collector 

 visits them from time to time, and instead of examining the 

 trees he observes carefully the ground in which they grow, 

 for parrots, and monkeys, and rats, and mice like the fruits, 

 but they do not eat the whole of them, so as soon as he finds 

 1 J. H. J. Farquhar, The Oil Palm and its Varieties. 



