COCOANUT-TREE. 153 



of a coarse spongy farinaceous sort of pith. With the leaves 

 the natives thatch their houses and construct baskets, and 

 they are commonly used as a substitute for paper, beino- 

 written on, or rather engraved, with an iron-pomted instru- 

 ment. 



In the peninsula occurs a dwarf species of date-palm, 

 named Phonux fariniferahj Roxburgh, but little known to 

 botanists in general. It appears to be found chiefly on 

 sandy lands at a small distance from the sea. The trunk is 

 only one, or at most two feet high, and so entirely enveloped 

 in the leaves, which are a good deal like those of the[com- 

 mon date-palm (Phcenix dactylifera), that the whole appears' 

 like a large round bush. Baskets are constructed of the 

 leaflets, and a great quantity of farinaceous substance is 

 obtained from the centre of the stem, which in times of 

 scarcity has frequently supplied the poor people with food. 

 It is, however, less nutritious and palatable than common 

 sago. 



The cocoanut (Cocos nuciferd) is of all palms most de- 

 servedly valued as one of the greatest of the many bless- 

 ings showered down by a bountiful Providence upon the in- 

 habitants of a tropical climate. It is a common saying 

 that the cocoanut-tree has ninety-nine uses, and that the 

 hundredth cannot be discovered. The limits prescribed to 

 this article will only permit us to describe its general ap- 

 pearance, and give a brief outline of the purposes to which 

 the various parts are applied. This palm is from siity to a 

 hundred feet in height, and one to two feet in diameter : at 

 the top it is crowned with a magnificent tuft of leaves, each 

 about fourteen feet in length, and resembhng an enormous 

 feather. It rejoices to grow in the nloist low grounds that 

 border the seacoast, or that form the neighbouring islands. 

 Nothing can be more beautiful than these cocoa-groves. 

 The bare trunks rise like columns to a vast height, and the 

 regular foliage arching their summits carries the eye along 

 the vistas, as it were, of a boundless gothic edifice. It is a 

 very prolific tree ; flowers are put forth every four or five 

 weeks, and thus flowers and fruit are generally to be seen 

 at the same tune. Of the roots are constructed baskets ; 

 of the hollowed trunk drums, pipes for aqueducts, &c. The 

 reticulated substance at the base of each leaf, besides serv- 

 ing for infants' cradles, is manufactured into coarse sack- 



