TEE COMPLETED ATOLL. 281 



visitor whom they would honor with a like anointing. 

 Further, from the young fruit, three-fourths grown, comes a 

 delightful beverage as brisk nearly as soda-water, besides a 

 rich creamy pulp ; both of these far better than the correspond- 

 ing products of the ripe fruit. The husk is excellent for cord- 

 age, twine, thread, fishing-lines ; and the smaller cord serves in 

 place of nails for securing together the beams of their domes- 

 tic and public buildings, and also for ornamenting the struc- 

 ture within, the cord being often wound with much taste and 

 diversity of figures. The nut is, when opened, a ready-made 

 drinking cup or cooking utensil. Finally, the developing bud, 

 before blossoming, yields a large supply of sweet juice, from 

 which molasses is sometimes made, and then, by fermentation, 

 a spirituous liquor, called among the Gilbert Islanders by 

 a name that sounded very much like toddy, and possessing 

 qualities that answer to the name ; but this is procured at 

 the expense of the fruit, and the good of the tree, and also 

 of the best interests of the natives. 



It is doubted whether the ocean is ever successful in planting 

 the cocoanut on coral islands. The nut seems to be well fitted 

 for marine transportation, through its thick husk, which serves 

 both as a float and a protection ; but there is no known evi- 

 dence that any island never inhabited has been found supplied 

 with cocoanut trees. The possibility of a successful planting 

 by the waves cannot be denied ; but there are so many chances 

 that the floating nut will be kept too long in the water, or be 

 thrown where it cannot germinate, that the probability of a 

 transplanting is exceedingly small. This palm — the Cocos 

 nucifera of the botanists — is not included in the list of native 

 Coral Island species on page 278. 



Another tree, peculiarly fitted for the region, is the Pan- 

 danus or Screiv-Pine — well named as far as the syllable screw 



