THE COOO-NUT PALM. 549 



but it does not succeed in Egypt. It is cultivated in the lower 

 and southern portions of the Asiatic Continent, as on the coasts 

 of Coromandel and Malabar, and around Calcutta. In the island 

 of Ceylon, where the fruit of this tree forms one of the principal 

 aliments of the natives, the nuts are produced in such quantities 

 that in one year about three millions were exported, besides the 

 manufactured produce in oil, &c. According to Marshall it 

 requires a mean temperature of 72 deg. Its northern limit, there- 

 fore, is nearly the same as the southern limit of our cereals. 



Eumphius enumerates thirteen varieties of this palm, but many 

 of these have now been placed under other genera, and Lindley 

 resolves them into three species C. nucifera, the most generally 

 diffused species, a native of the East Indies ; and C.fleocuosa and 

 plumosa, natives of Brazil. The trunk, which is supported by 

 numerous small fibrous roots, rises gracefully, with a slight in- 

 clination, from forty to sixty feet in height ; it is cylindrical, of 

 middling size, marked from the root upwards with unequal 

 circles or rings, and is crowned by a graceful head of large leaves. 

 The terminal bud of this palm, as well as that of the cabbage palm 

 (JZuterpe montana), is used as a culinary vegetable. The wood 

 of the tree is known by the name of porcupine wood. It is 

 light and spongy, and, therefore, cannot be advantageously em- 

 ployed in the construction of ships or solid edifices, though it is 

 used in building huts ; vessels made of it are fragile and of little 

 duration. Its fruit, at different seasons, is in much request ; when 

 young, it is filled with a clear, somewhat sweet, and cooling fluid, 

 which is equally refreshing to the native and the traveller. When 

 the nut becomes old, or attains its full maturity, the fluid disap- 

 pears, and the hollow is filled by a sort of almond, which is the 

 germinating organ. This pulp or kernel, when cut in pieces and 

 dried in the sun, is called copperah, and is eaten by the Malays, 

 Coolies, and other natives, and from it a valuable species of oil is 

 expressed, which is in great demand for a variety of purposes. 

 The refuse oil cake is called Poonac, and forms an excellent manure. 



A calcareous concretion is sometimes found in the centre of the 

 nut, to which peculiar virtues have been attributed. 



Along the Gulf of Cariaco there are many large coco walks. 

 In moist and fertile ground it begins to bear abundantly the fourth 

 year; but in dry soils it does not produce fruit until the tenth. 

 Its duration does not generally exceed 80 or 100 years, at which 

 period its mean height is about 80 feet. Throughout this coast a 

 coco tree supplies annually about 100 nuts, which yield eight fiascos 

 of oil. The fiasco is sold for about Is. 4d. A great quantity is made 

 at Cumana, and Humboldt frequently witnessed the arrival there 

 of canoes containing 3,000 nuts. 



Throughout the South Sea Islands, coco-nut palms abound, and 

 oil may be obtained in various places. Some of the uninhabited 

 islands are covered with dense groves, and the ungathered nuts, 

 which have fallen year after year, lie upon the ground in incredible 

 quantities. Two or three men, provided with the necessary appa- 



