BOTANY. 



opinions respecting the merits of the species, as an 

 esculent. It is the daily food of the natives of Raiatea, 

 and, together with the bread-fruit, affords their principal 

 vegetable sustenance. The Society Islanders distinguish 

 several varieties of the tree, but two only came under 

 my own observation : the one named potia, bearing a 

 very large globular fruit ; the other producing a berry 

 which, when ripe, has the same pale colour as the 

 banana. 



When the Fei tree has perfected its fruit it perishes, 

 and is succeeded by a scion from its own roots ; its in- 

 crease over the land it inhabits is also effected bysolens, 

 or offsets. 



MONCECIA. HEXANDRIA. 



Cocos nucifera. Cocoa-nut Tree. This tall and 

 plumy palm, equally useful to mankind and ornamental 

 to the soil it covers, exists on all the inter-tropical lands 

 we visited : on the Society and Marquesan Islands it is 

 peculiarly abundant, both on the sea-shore and on the 

 more interior and fertile soil. The average height of 

 the species is between fifty and seventy feet; the 

 flowers are pale-yellow, and very diminutive, compared 

 ,with the large and ponderous fruit they produce. The 

 nuts are gathered for eating while they are yet young ? 

 when the dense husk that envelopes them is green and 

 juicy, the shell thin and soft, and when the contained 

 fluid is in the greatest quantity, which averages about 

 one pint. In this young state, the kernel affords an 

 agreeable spoon-meat, which may be compared to blanc- 

 mange ; while the fluid it surrounds, furnishes a cool, 

 pleasant, and wholesome beverage, whose every ex- 

 cellence can only be appreciated by those who have en- 

 joyed the refreshing draught, when suffering from 



