THE PALMS OF ASIA. 149 



Split and lioHowed, it forms excellent gutters 

 and palings ; the leaf stalks are also used for 

 the latter purpose. The leaf forms a covering 

 for roofs, nearly as good as shingles ; besides 

 furnishing materials of a very superior descrip- 

 tion for hats, bonnets, baskets, and artificial 

 flowers, in the manufacture of which the Sey- 

 chellois display greot taste and skill. The 

 leaves are so firmly attached to the trunk that 

 a man may seat himself at the end of one with 

 perfect safety. The fruit is fifteen inches in 

 length, about three feet in circumference, and 

 weighs from thirty to forty pounds. As many 

 as seven well-formed fruits are sometimes seen 

 on a single spadix. The fecundation is occa- 

 sionally imperfect, and then the ovary expands 

 and lengthens, but does not assume its visual 

 form, and at the end of two or three years it 

 falls off. A female plant at Mahe flowered for 

 several years without producing any fruit, owing 

 to the absence of a male plant. In 1833, a 

 male flower was procured from an estate a few 

 miles distant, and suspended in the tree. About 

 two months afterwards, one of the buds ex- 

 panded, and the mature fruit dropped from 

 the tree at the end of 1841. All attempts to 

 transplant this tree to the other islands have 

 hitherto proved fruitless. 



