Dr. E. P. Wright on Lodoicea sechellarum. 345 



the south-eastern side of the island, the property of Mr. Camp- 

 bell ; here the trees grow in great numbers, down even to the 

 water's edge. The largest (some are from 100 to 130 feet 

 high) are met with in the valley. Male and female trees are 

 found in nearly equal quantities. On this property a certain 

 number of the trees are stripped of their leaves to supply the 

 demand for this article at Mah^, where they are manufactm-ed 

 into hats, fans, and baskets. A certain number of nuts are 

 allowed to remain on the ground to germinate, and, besides 

 these, a large number fall that are never found ; and a good 

 number are sent to Mah^ and to the Mauritius for sale. But 

 unless some sudden catastrophe happen to this forest, which 

 contains many thousand trees of all sizes and ages, it will long 

 remain a sight well worthy of being visited by the curious. 



Another, and to my mind more magnificent, forest of this 

 palm is to be met with in a large valley situated in the moun- 

 tains between the cocoa-nut plantation on the eastern side, 

 over which Mr. Osucree is the agent, and the Protestant 

 schoolhouse and church on the western side. A walk of 

 some two hours from the worthy and hospitable agent's house 

 brings one to the summit of the mountain, and then this noble 

 valley bursts upon one's view ; but in the space I allow my- 

 self for these notes I cannot do justice to this subject. The 

 valley may be, in its narrowest portion, about a mile wide and 

 some 500 feet deep ; in its centre a little rivulet commences, 

 that meanders through a narrow valley looking towards the 

 north-west. Here were to be seen hundreds of Verschaufeldia 

 grandiflora and a Stevensomay growing to a height of thirty to 

 forty feet. In sheltered nooks there were groves of a tree fern, 

 with stems fifty feet in height ; but towering like giants among 

 these pigmies were very many (too many to count) of the Lo- 

 doicea sechellarum J often growing in threes — two female trees, 

 and between and somewhat overshadowing them a male tree. 

 They were from 100 to 150 feet in height, and were in all 

 stages of fruit and flower. The spathe of the male spadix is 

 smaller than the spathe of the female spadix ,* and the latter, by 

 the time the fruit ripens, becomes very hard and spike-like. 

 It is this portion that the Creoles allude to when they tell one 

 that '' the fruit-stalk is supported by three strong bracts, the 

 outer one of which penetrates the stalk immediately above it, 

 in the underside of which nature has left a fissure accessible to 

 it : by this provision the stalk is enabled to support the weight 

 of fruit which hangs on it " *. I found, on all the trees that I 



* Journal of tlie Linnean Society, vol. viii. p. 137. Of course I do not 

 ascribe this theory to my friend Mr. Ward, although I here quote from 

 his interesting paper. 



