THE PALMS OF ASIA. 77 



The cocoa nut palm rises like a slender 

 column to from sixty to ninety feet in height ; 

 its stem is of a soft, fibrous texture, and is 

 marked externally by rings, produced by the 

 fall of its leaves ; two such leaves are said to 

 drop off annually, and consequently the age of 

 an individual is equal to half the number of 

 annular scars on the stem. About a dozen or 

 fifteen leaves, each from twelve to twenty-four 

 feet long, and three feet broad, crown the sum- 

 mit of the stem ; and as these are not unaptly 

 compared to gigantic ostrich feathers, they give 

 the plant the air of an enormous tuft of vege- 

 table plumes. A reticulated substance, resem- 

 bling coarse cloth, envelopes the base of each 

 leaf stalk, but falls off before the leaf is full 

 grown. The flowers proceed from withiu a 

 large pointed spathe, which always opens on 

 the underside. In wet seasons, the tree blossoms 

 every five or six weeks, so that there are gene- 

 rally fresh flowers and ripe nuts on the tree at 

 the same time. There are commonly from five 

 to fifteen nuts in a bunch, and in a good soil a 

 tree may bear from eight to twelve bunches, or 

 from eighty to one hundred nuts annually. 

 Mr. Stevens states, that five hundred nuts are 

 often produced from a single tree. In the eyes 

 of a native of Ceylon, the cocoa palm associates 



