292 OUB COMMON FUTJITS. 



manded an almost fabulous price, Rochou affirming that 

 it was not uncommon at one time to see them sold for 

 upwards of 400 each, and the Emperor Eodolph, it is 

 said, having failed to procure one, though he offered a 

 sum of 4,000 florins for a single specimen. In the Mai- 

 dive Islands it was a capital crime to appropriate one, all 

 that were found belonging as of royal right to the king, 

 who disposed of his treasure-trove as the most costly of 

 gifts, or sold them at enormous prices. Their rarity, 

 however, and their supposed almost supernatural origin, 

 were not the sole cause of the inordinate value set upon 

 them, for they were further imagined to be endowed with 

 strange and powerful virtues, the kernel being reckoned 

 not only a preventive against and cure for a variety oi 

 diseases, but also, when duly prepared in a mixture with 

 pounded coral and ebony, was thought to be a sure anti- 

 dote against all poison ; while the shell was made into 

 drinking-cups, on which wealthy Indians lavished golden 

 settings and jewelled decorations ; for even a slice of this 

 precious substance used as a lid to a cup of other material 

 would suffice to neutralize any poison that might be poured 

 into it. In 1734, however, all the romance connected 

 with the Cocos de Mer came to a very commonplace termi- 

 nation by the discovery of the Seychelle Islands (situate 

 in the Indian Ocean, N.E. of Madagascar) where these 

 mystical marvels were found growing abundantly in very 

 ordinary fashion upon trees differing but little from the 

 common Cocoa-palm, though, singularly enough, they were 

 not found upon all the islands of this group, but only on 

 three, not more than half a mile distant from each other. 

 Supplied in far greater plenty, and no longer regarded as 

 the produce of a griffin-guarded submarine prodigy, of 

 course their value greatly diminished, but Malte Brun 

 says that it " was found profitable to cultivate them in 

 the Isle of France ; " and it has been found that the tree 

 begins to bear in five or six years after planting, and 

 continues to do so for 50 or 60 years, often blossoming 

 every four or five weeks, so as to present a continual 

 succession both of fresh flowers and ripe nuts, from 80 to 

 100 of the latter being produced annually. The shells 



