272 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. [Oh. XVI. 



formerly grown. The last-named fruit, so great a favourite 

 with some, and so detested by others, is produced in such 

 quantities that 50 doUars are given for the produce of a 

 single tree. 



But the one tree ia which is now centred the promise and 

 the hope of the Singapore planters is the Cocoa-nut (Cocos 

 nucifera). It does not appear to be indigenous, for none 

 are found in the jungle ; but it was long since introduced by 

 the Malays. It is comparatively of late years, however, that 

 European planters have looked upon it as a source of wealth, 

 and foreseen that it may prove in course of time to be the 

 most important production of Singapore. The original 

 cocoa-nut plantations are yielding golden returns ; and within 

 the last ten years, or less, a great impetus has been given to 

 the propagation of a tree to which the sandy and poor soil of 

 Singapore seems admirably adapted. The trees thrive, and 

 the only drawback is that several years must elapse before 

 they attain such a growth as to yield any recompense for the 

 original expenditure. The uses of the tree are numerous ; 

 but it is to the oil that the planter looks for his reward. 

 With proper machinery for separating this oU, the rapidly- 

 extending cocoa-nut plantations bid fair to place cocoa-nut 

 oil in an important position among the exports from Singa- 

 pore. The cocoa-nuts, however, are not free from their 

 enemies, in the shape of two beetles — one, a large Curcuho 

 (Ehynchophorus Sach), nearly as big as the English stag- 

 beetle, and the other an Oryctes (O. Rhinoceros), so called 

 from its projecting horn. The first of them is called in 

 Singapore the red beetle, from a blood-red mark upon the 

 upper part of the thorax, and it probably attacks the nut ; 

 while the second feeds upon the terminal bud of the palm- 

 stem. When thus attacked, the bud dies, and the crown of 



