216 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICIILTURAL SOCIETY. 



as be may be, by iiieaus of narratives or prints, with such things^ 

 still the beholding moves one with a new emotiou. There is a 

 curious interest in witnessing the peculiar growth of the Cocoa 

 Palm ( Cocos nucifera) , with its constant presence of blossoms and 

 fruit. We were permitted to see this fine tree in all stages of it& 

 growth, first as a germinating nut with its fronds of green leaves 

 bursting through its husky envelope ; then as a young tree not so 

 tall but that I might pluck the fruit from the ground, and maturer 

 trees, from forty to forty-five feet in height, that would require the 

 dexterity of an agile boy or monkey to climb to seek the fruit. 

 The trunk of the cocoa palm is from six to ten inches through ; it 

 is endogenous, growing at the end of the stem and, therefore, has 

 all of its foliage at the extremity of the truuk. Every month a 

 new leaf or spathe expands itself from the fibrous integument in 

 which it is enfolded and discloses a spadix of bloom and so it 

 happens that there is always to be seen, on a healthy and growing 

 specimen of this species, the blossom, below this the small nuts, 

 the size of walnuts ; beneath them a cluster of from six to ten 

 larger ones the size of the fist ; and below these the ripening nuts, 

 each hanging by a slender stem, not so large as a lead pencil. 

 It is claimed, I cannot say how truly, that from a thrifty tree one 

 may pick a ripened cocoa-nut every day in the year. The plant- 

 ing of this picturesque tree is so simple a matter as the excavation 

 of a shallow hole in the sand and placing therein a sprouted nut, 

 covering it and leaving it to care for itself. If at a distance from 

 the salt water, it is the custom to place a quart of coarse salt in the 

 hole with the nut, as the tree is said to be partial to the salt water 

 and grows with the greatest freedom near to the seashore. It 

 fruits at the age of four years. 



Another remarkable and striking tree is the silk-cotton tree, 

 Bombax Ceiba, which, when a young tree, has a clear, round 

 trunk of a gray color but thickly covered with stout spines or thorns 

 projecting from one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch. At this 

 stage of its growth it is called tlie monkey teaser as it must greatly 

 perplex the monkey tribe to climb its prickly trunk in a hurry and 

 not get badly scratched. As the tree increases in size it throws 

 out huge buttresses around the base of its stem, as if to brace 

 itself for the terrible tempests Avhich sooner or later it must 

 encounter. The largest tree of this species is in the rear of the 

 Public Building on Bay Street at the corner of Parliament Street. 



