Tlie Coco-de-Mer — A Huge Land TortoLe. 215 



male plant, which he had placed over the immature fruits on the • 

 female tree. The male tree bears a long thick spike, studded 

 with minute flowers, the pollen from which must be shaken over 

 the female flowers, in order to insure impregnation. The tree at 

 Mahe was about twenty feet high, but I was informed by Mr. 

 Brodie that fully grown trees in the island of Praslin attain a 

 height of a hundred feet. The mature nuts if left on the gro-und 

 readily germinate. The outer hard covering splits at the sulcus 

 of the nut, and from thence shoots out a rhizome, which after 

 extending underground for a few feet gives origin to the future 

 stem and rootlets, which proceed respectively upwards and down- 

 wards from the termination of the rhizome. The Coco de Mer is 

 an article of trade, a good many being brought over annually to 

 Mahe, where some are sold to visitors as curiosities, while the 

 remainder are shipped to the Red Sea ports to be sold to the 

 Arabs, who have a profound belief in their medicinal properties. 



In the gardens of Government House were also two fine 

 examples of the celebrated Land Tortoise of Aldabra, an animal 

 which, although indigenous in Aldabra Island alone, has of late 

 years been introduced into many of the neighbouring islands. The 

 pair at Mahe were male and female, and weighed respectively about 

 four hundred and five hundred pounds. The male seemed to have 

 no difficulty in bearing a man upon his back. At the time q>{ 

 our visit the female had just commenced to lay, depositino- her 

 eggs in holes which she excavated in the damp soil, and carefully 

 filled in. 



From a commercial point of view, the Seychelle Islands are 

 now in a transition state. The cocoa-nut industry has 01 late 

 years been unprosperous, mainly owing to the ravages of a worm 

 which invades the roots and stem of the cocoa-nut trees, and 

 causes them to dwindle and perish. The produce of oil has con- 

 sequently been so reduced, and the freight charges continue to be 

 so high, on account of the absence of steamship competition, that 

 only a small margin of profit is left to the planter. This failure 



