Mr. G. Clark on the Cocoa-nut of the Seychelles Islands. 449 



beauty and in great variety are made by some of the Seychelles 

 ladies, and some of these productions obtained much admira- 

 tion and a prize at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The nerve 

 which strengthens each leaflet is employed to stiflen hats made 

 of the leaf, each seam of the rows of plat being sewed over it. 

 This may also be split into fibres as fine as hair, and possesses 

 considerable tenacity. I have seen a little basket of very com- 

 plicated and delicate structure made of this material. It was 

 manufactured by a lady of the Vendries family, which is un- 

 rivalled for the taste and skill displayed in the articles made 

 from the Coco-de-Mer by its members. Mats of great beauty 

 and unequalled durability are also made of these leaves. The 

 extreme hardness and smoothness of their surface, and the 

 length and strength of their fibres, are unrivalled by any sub- 

 stance within my knowledge. The expanded leaf forms an 

 excellent thatch, nearly equal to shingles in durability. Its 

 strength is so great that, when pinned together with little 

 skewers of bamboo, it forms a basket capable of bearing nearly 

 a bushel of fruit. 



The petiole forms a strong and durable paling, and is also 

 sometimes used for small rafters. The trunk, when cut into 

 lengths and split into palisades, is used instead of boards for 

 the sides of houses, and will last, I believe, as long as any wood. 

 When split in two and hollowed, it is used for gutters for con- 

 veying water, and is almost imperishable. The size of the nuts 

 varies greatly : I have seen some which would not hold a bottle, 

 and others which were sixteen times as large. These extremes 

 are rare ; but a nut of ordinary size will hold from six to eight 

 bottles. When intended to be preserved whole, they are left in 

 a damp place till the perisperm has rotted away — a process 

 which requires many months to complete : during this process 

 it not unfrequently happens that flat-shelled snails introduce 

 themselves into the nut, and grow too large to get out by the 

 hole by which they entered, and die there, hke the weasel in 

 the fable. They aie then called Cocos legers. They are then 

 pierced with an auger at one end, or the extremity is sawn ofl^; 

 the orifice through which the germ sprouts is stopped up with 

 a little pitch, and a withe round the cleft converts it into a con- 

 venient bucket, strong and light. When sawn longitudinally, 

 it forms an elliptical vessel, called Coco scie, superior to every- 

 thing else for baling out boats. 



Three-lobed nuts are sometimes met with. I have possessed 

 one with five lobes, and have heard of one having as many as 

 seven. The kernel of the Lodoicea contains a portion of oil ; 

 but its excessive hardness, and the difficulty of detaching it from 

 the shell (itself so valuable), render it practically useless for oil- 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xiv. 29 



