Mr. G. Clark on the Cocoa-nut of the Seychelles Islands. 443 



The name " Coco-de-Mer," or Sea Cocoa-nut, was given in 

 consequence of the first specimens of it which were known having 

 been found floating in the sea, into which they had been carried 

 by the streams ; and some of these having been met with in the 

 neighbourhood of the Maldive Islands, their name was added to 

 that of Coco-de-Mer. When the Seychelles archipelago was 

 discovered, three of the islands composmg it, Praslin, Curieuse, 

 and I'ile Konde were covered with magnificent forests of this 

 unique palm, and their soil strewed with its huge and singularly 

 shaped nuts. The value of their shells as domestic utensils for 

 various purposes was at once perceived ; and from that time to 

 the present they have supplied to the inhabitants the place of 

 buckets, bowls, jars, dishes, measures for grain and liquids, 

 drinking- vessels, paint-pots, &c. ; and they were extensively used 

 among the labouring population of Mauritius until the diminu- 

 tion of the plant, and the great demand for the fruit which has 

 arisen within the last few years in India and Persia, greatly 

 enhanced their value. 



The palm which produces this singular nut is the only mem- 

 ber of its genus. Its systematic name is Lodoicea Seychel- 

 larum. It may be termed an equatorial plant, the islands on 

 which it is found lying between 4 15' and 4° 21' S. lat., and 55° 

 39' and 55° 49' E. Ion. Its stem attains a height of 80 or 90 

 feet, and is quite straight, cylindrical, and smooth, but slightly 

 marked throughout its length by the scars left by its fallen 

 leaves. These scars are naturally more or less distant from each 

 other, according to the rapidity of the growth of the plant. On 

 tile barren hill-sides they are scarcely 2 inches apart, while in 

 the moist and fertile gorges they are as much as 3. The dia- 

 meter of the stem varies, from the same causes, from 12 to 15 

 inches. A stalk so long and slender, crowned by leaves of vast 

 size and strength, is necessarily much influenced by the wind ; and 

 in strong breezes the plants bend considerably, while their elas- 

 ticity causes them to wave in the most graceful manner. The 

 clashing of the leaves in a stifi'gale produces a londer noise than 1 

 have heard from any other trees, and quite of a difl'ercnt nature j 

 and the occasional fall of the ponderous fruit renders a passage 

 among the Sea Cocoa-nuts a somewhat dangerous affair except in 

 calm weather. I have heard of an instance of a woman's being 

 struck by one while washing at a brook. A companion who 

 was washing beside her was only made aware of the circum- 

 stance by the fall of the nut : the victim died without a ciy or 

 groan. 



The stem of this, like other palms, consists of a mass of hard 

 fibres, enclosing a medullary substance ; but the fibrous portion 

 of the stalk of the Coco-de-Mer is harder than that of any other 



