290 OUE COMMON FBTTITS. 



and the hollow is filled with a spongy mass, which is, in 

 fact, the germinating organ. When deposited in the 

 ground, the germ in a few days makes its way through the 

 hole provided for its exit : one end of the shoot strikes into 

 the ground to form the root, the other sends up three pale 

 green feathery leaves, which soon unfold ; the young plant 

 then grows rapidly, in the course of four or five years 

 begins to bear, and continues to do so without intermis- 

 sion during the rest of its life, which is protracted for 

 nearly a century, and so luxuriantly that often as many 

 as 200 nuts in all stages, besides innumerable white blos- 

 soms, may be seen upon it at one time. 



The Cocoa-palm flourishes best near the sea-side, the 

 principal nourishment it craves being silex and soda ; and 

 in Brazil, where the supply of these is naturally deficient, 

 they even supply salt to the soil where it is planted, in 

 quantities as large as half a bushel to a single tree ; and 

 so essential is this considered to its prosperity that it is 

 not neglected even when salt costs 2s. per Ib. It is also 

 found to thrive near human habitations better than in 

 solitude, which causes the natives to say that the tree 

 " loves conversation ; " though more matter-of-fact Euro- 

 peans assign as the probable reason for this choice of 

 locality, that it may derive benefit from the ashes thrown 

 out where fires have been made. The fact itself seems 

 unquestionable, for it is equally observed in other palm- 

 growing countries, Sir Emerson Tennent remarking that 

 in Ceylon it is only on the coast, or near towns or 

 villages, that the Cocoa is found in perfection ; adding that 

 " In the deepest jungle the sight of a single cocoa-nut 

 towering above the other foliage is in Ceylon a never- 

 failing landmark to intimate to the traveller his approach 

 to a village. The natives have a superstition that the 

 cocoa-nut will not grow out of the sound of a human voice, 

 and will die if the village where it had previously thriven 

 become deserted." In that country, too, the tree is 

 found to fulfil one singular and important use beyond the 

 many which have been ascribed to it in other places, 

 Sir Emerson stating further that these tall palms, when 

 drenched with rain, serve as lightning-conductors, and 



