ir>4 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



presents of them to other potentates. At length, about a hun- 

 dred years ago, the French traveller Sonnerat discovered in the 

 uninhabited Seychelles the home of the Lodoicea Sechellarum, 

 which, like the cocoa, grows on the strand of that small and 

 secluded group, and drops its large nuts into the sea, which 

 then carries them along to the east. The trunk of the 

 Lodoicea rises to the height of forty or fifty feet, and bears a 

 crown of immense fan-like leaves, upwards of twenty feet long 

 and fifteen broad, with foot-stalks seven feet long. As soon as 

 the real origin of the wonderful drift nuts became known, they 

 of course immediately lost their imaginary value, to the great 

 vexation, no doubt, of the Maldive potentate, who thus found 

 himself deprived of the best part of his scanty revenues. 



The Eatans, a most singular genus of creeping plants, luxuriate 

 in the forests of tropical Asia. Sometimes their slender stems, 

 armed with dreadful spines at every joint, climb to the summit 

 of the highest tree ; sometimes they trail along the ground ; 

 and while it is impossible to find out their roots among the 

 intricate tangles of the matted underwood, their palm-like 

 tops expand in the sunshine, the emblems of successful 

 parasitism. They frequently render the forest so impervious, 

 that the distinguished naturalist Junghuhn, while exploring 

 the woods of Java, was obliged to be accompanied by a van- 

 guard of eight men, one-half of whom were busy cutting the 

 ratans with their hatchets, while the others removed the 

 stems. These rope-like plants frequently grow to the incredible 

 length of four or even six hundred feet, often consisting of a 

 couple of hundred joints two or three feet long", and bearing at 

 every knot a feathery leaf, armed with thorns on its lower sur- 

 face. Though often extremely disagreeable to the traveller, 

 yet they are far from being useless. The natives of Java and 

 the other islands of the Eastern Archipelago cut the cane into 

 fine slips, which they plait into beautiful mats, manufacture 

 into strong and neat baskets, or twist into cordage of such 

 strength and durability that it is even used with success in the 

 formation of bridges across the watercourses and ravines. 



On turning from the Indian Ocean to Arabia and Africa, we 

 enter upon a new world of palms, several of which are no less 

 valuable than the cocoa-nut or the palmyra. 



The date-tree (^Phoenix dactylifera^ sung from time imme- 



