30 Coco-nuts The Consols of the East 



, the trunk. These roots and rootlets are thin, 

 long-stretched and bulbous, eminently suited 

 and constructed to suck up the nourishment 

 and moisture from sand and the surrounding 

 ground. This accounts for the fact that one 

 sees many good and healthy-looking trees 

 growing on the bare sand right down to the 

 water's edge, which spots, apparently, should 

 offer no sustenance at all. 



In all such cases, however, one may be sure 

 that the rootlets are tapping the subsoil waters 

 flowing subterraneously from further inland, 

 which in their passage come laden with highly- 

 nutritious plant foods. It is not judicious to 

 plant coco-nut trees upon slopes of any steep 

 grade, because in such positions the tree would 

 not have so good a purchase, nor be so well 

 balanced, as it demands in an extraordinary 

 degree, on account of its imposing height 

 and the heavy foliage set on the top of its 

 slender trunk. 



It is not uncommon for such a trunk to 

 reach a height of 80 to 100 ft., with a diameter 

 of only a couple of feet perhaps just above 

 the ground, and it might be only i ft. to 18 in. 

 In spite of this the trunk, though apparently 

 made of such flimsy cellular material that it 

 seems a wonder it can with safety uphold 

 its length and proud crown, has so strong 

 an internal structure, which in many ways is 

 like the stays and shrouds of a ship's mast, 

 that its tenacity and strength are capable of 



