82 THE PALMS OF ASIA. 



pulp is an admirable vegetable blanc-iuange, 

 and the kernel of the seed cocoa nut, after vege- 

 tation has commenced, is reckoned among the 

 delicacies of a Cingalese dessert. It is spongy, 

 but pleasant to the taste, and is greatly esteemed 

 by the natives. The c.vpressed juice of the 

 pulp of the ripe fruit is properly the milk, and 

 is obtained by first rasping it with a kind of 

 grater, then soaking it in water, and afterwards 

 pressing it through a cloth, when it forms an 

 ingredient in all good curries. The liquor 

 which the nut contains is a grateful cooling 

 beverage, and with the kernel constitutes the 

 principal sustenance of the poorer Indians in 

 many countries. In Ceylon, the cocoa nut con- 

 tributes largely to the subsistence of the people ; 

 and when the grain crops fail, or are destroyed 

 by inundations, avert much of the misery which 

 so serious a calamity would otherwise occasion. 

 They are largely imported into Europe as a 

 luxury, and being used as wedges to set fast the 

 casks and other round packages in the holds of 

 vessels, their freight costs nothing. It was esti- 

 mated a few years ago that sLx hundred thousand 

 nuts were annually imported into England 

 alone, chiefly from the West Indies. The husk 

 in which the nut is enveloped is composed of 

 strong fibre, and when this has been macerated 



