270 GARDEN PLANTS. PART II. 



" 2nd. The Cocoa-nut of Canara. This species has for its dis- 

 tinguishing characters a form perfectly oval, a ligneous and more 

 solid shell, a husk exceedingly green, and filaments remarkably 

 hard ; all its sutures so little prominent that they are sensible 

 to the eye, but not to the touch. 



" 3rd. That of the Coast of Malabar, which is turbinated : that 

 is to say, larger at the hole which is found under the covering 

 that binds and fixes the pedicle of the fruit to its cluster. 



"4th. The Cocoa-nut of the Maldives, sandy islands, is very 

 small, and absolutely spherical ; its sutures are very much raised, 

 and far more prominent in the upper part than those opposite to 

 its pedicle. 



" 5th. That of Achem, a small island situated on the south side 

 of those of Sonda and the Moluccas, is distinguished by its ovoid 

 form, its extreme smallness, and the thickness of its kernel, 

 which is so pulpy that there is scarcely any vacuity in it, and 

 that it contains very little liquor. 



" 6th. The species cultivated in the Nicobar Isles, situated in 

 the upper part of the Bay of Bengal, which is the largest of 

 all the varieties of this fruit. Its external form is triangular ; 

 its husk is remarkably thick ; the nut is oval, and a little flat- 

 tened at its two poles, and there issues from the upper pole a 

 sharp point, on which account it is called the Needle Coeoa- 

 nut. 



" 7th. The Cocoa-nut of Ceylon is a very elongated spheroid ; 

 it has its suture corresponding to the orifice or eye of the germ, 

 more prominent by a strong line than those of the other 

 countries." 



He likewise mentions : " About the eighteenth or nineteenth 

 day after a Cocoa-nut is sown, the point of the germ is observed 

 issuing from the earth like the small tooth of an elephant, and 

 as white and smooth. This point retains this form for a fort- 

 night or three weeks. It is then exceedingly tender, saccharine, 

 of an agreeable taste, and exceedingly delicate to eat either raw 

 or roasted in ashes. It is often presented at the best tables of 

 the Europeans."* 



Sir E. Tennent thus describes the culture of the Cocoa-nut in 

 Ceylon : 



* ' Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine,' vol. xx. p. 316, translated from the 

 ' Bibliotheque Physico-Eeonoraique,' Nos. 5, 6, 7, &c., 1804. 



