THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 



77 



to you for this very interesting account of the Baobab, which 

 will much enhance the pleasure I have in watching my pigmy 

 specimen.* Here is the Cocoa-nut tree (Cocos nucifera,} 

 which, in its native country, attains 70 or 80 feet in height. 

 It does not begin to bear fruit until the fourth year, even in a 

 damp and fertile soil; but in barren ground, not until the tenth 

 year of its age. 



Cocoa-nut. 



MRS. F. 

 Does not the Cocoa-nut prefer salt to fresh water 1 ? 



MRS. C. 



Yes; it always grows best near the sea, and when planted 

 inland, the cultivators throw half a bushel of salt in the hole 

 made to receive the nut. It is not a long-lived tree, its du- 

 ration seldom exceeding eighty to a hundred years; and it 



* Tableaux de la Nature. Humboldt's Personal narrative. Gol- 

 berry's Africa. Hooker in Botanical Magazine, vol. lv. &e. &c. 



7* 



