i66 



TROPICAL AGRICULTURE 



CHAP. 



The husk 

 and the 

 shell. 



useful products obtained from the juice. The fruit is well- 

 known and highly esteemed in all parts of the world. The 

 husk produces coir, from which ropes, cordage, mats, brooms, 

 brushes, bedding and other useful articles are manufactured. 

 The hard shell is made into lamps, drinking vessels, spoons 



The kernel, and such like things. The white kernel, or albumen (called 

 "copra" when dried and exported), contains much oil, which 

 is largely used in Eastern countries for cooking and lighting 

 purposes ; and, in Europe and America, it is made into soap 

 and candles. After the oil is extracted the refuse, called 

 " poonac," is valuable as food for cattle and poultry, and for 

 manure. The kernel is a food product of great importance 

 to the inhabitants of many parts of the tropics. In the 

 Laccadive Islands, it forms the chief food of the people, each 

 person being said to consume at the rate of four nuts a day. 



The milk. Inside the nut is a large cavity filled with a deliciously cool 

 fluid which when the nut is young is used as an agreeable 

 beverage and as a medicine in some complaints. The 

 albumen of the young nut is a soft, jelly-like substance 

 which is highly nutritious and of a delicious flavour. Finally, 

 a very singular and highly-prized pearl is found under very 

 rare circumstances in cocoa-nuts, and a specimen has lately 

 been added to the Museums of the Royal Gardens at Kew. 

 In the enumeration of all these uses to which the cocoa-nut 

 palm is put, many have been left out, but sufficient have 

 been mentioned to show that the tree is one of the most 



The value of valuable known to man. In Ceylon it is said that the wealth 

 of a native is reckoned by the number of cocoa-nut trees he 



Ceylon. 



Varieties. 



possesses ; and Sir J. Emerson Tennant, in his work on 

 Ceylon, gives particulars of a law suit in which the subject 

 in dispute was " a claim to the 2,52oth part of ten of the 

 precious palms." The cocoa-nut, like the banana and other 

 plants that have been cultivated in many different countries 

 from ancient times, has many varieties, but the differences 

 consist principally of variations in the size, shape and 

 character of the fruit. In some instances the fruit is small 



