COCOA-NUT TREE. 311 



The cocoa-nuts intended for planting are fully 

 ripe, and being taken down, are laid aside for 

 several days : they are then taken, and being 

 partially covered with earth, they are left 

 for two or three months ; in which time a white, 

 spongy, sweet substance forms in the interior of 

 the nut ; after which the white shoot (the rudi- 

 ment of the future tree) emerges from one of the 

 three holes, (which are seen at one end of the 

 nut, wisely provided by nature for this purpose,) 

 pierces the nut, and rising to the height of a few 

 inches, the foliaceous rudiments are distinctly 

 to be perceived ;* the radicles emerge from the 

 other two orifices, in a direction opposite to the 

 shoot, and penetrate the ground. In the course 

 of four or five months, the plant will have at- 

 tained the height of sixteen or eighteen inches, 

 and have thrown out three or four foliaceous 

 branches. The Singalese plant their topes,f or 



its alkaline ashes ; and it is a common practice, in planting a 

 cocoa-nut, to put a little salt into the pit." — Davys Ceylon, 

 4to. p. 355. 



* The natives of Tonga give the cocoa-nut, when in 

 the act of germinating, the same appellation as the brain 

 — " Uto." 



f A ludicrous mistake, I recollect, once occurred respect- 

 ing this word in one of the missionary letters sent to Eng- 

 land ; it was mentioned that they preached to the natives in 

 iopes of cocoa-nut trees : this, when it appeared in one of the 



