Miscellaneous. 597 



Potamogeton Prcelongus. 

 This rare plant occurs plentifully in the river Waveney, which divides 

 Norfolk from Suffolk, in the neighbourhood of Harleston and Bungay, 

 where I gathered it in June last. The only other station, to the south 

 of the Tweed, is in ditches near Caversham Bridge near Reading, where 

 it was found by Mr. Borrer in May 1836.— Charles C. Babington. 



The Cocos de Mer. 



The singular plant known by the above title, was for many years a 

 source of inquiry, and gave rise to some most absurd and monstrous 

 conjectures. Its gigantic fruit was occasionally picked up floating at 

 sea, and sometimes carried by the currents to various shores of the 

 Indian ocean. Astonishing virtues were attributed to it, and were 

 supposed to be communicated to medicines drunk out of its capacious 

 shell. It is stated that as much as four hundred pounds sterling have 

 actually been paid for a single nut. 



The colonization of the Seychelles Archipelago by the French under 

 M. de la Bourdonnais, the talented and patriotic governor of Mauritius, 

 set the matter at rest. The Cocos de Mer was found growing in the 

 islands of Praslin and Curieuse, whose mountains were abundantly 

 covered with this stupendous plant. It is a palm, and like several 

 other members of that family, the male and female flowers are found on 

 different individuals. Its stem rises to the height of from 90 to 100 

 feet, and is crowned with the most superb leaves that can be imagined, 

 which form a kind of pent-house around it is as impervious to water as 

 if covered by a roof. 



The leaves exactly resemble in form those of the fan-palm, but their 

 dimensions are vastly superior. There are many of them that, mea- 

 sured from the base of the stem, are 20 feet in length, and their ample 

 folds cover a width of from 10 to 12 feet. It is not till it has attained 

 the age of from 20 to 25 years that it begins to bear. The enormous 

 drupes, hanging in clusters of four or five, are so heavy, that a plant of 

 less strength would give way beneath a single bunch, and they hang 

 three or four years before they are ripe enough to fall. Thus although 

 only one fruit branch is put forth in the year, the produce of three or 

 four seasons burdens the stem at a time, the aggregate weight of which 

 is very considerable. 



Description cannot do justice to the beauty of these forests, nor con- 

 vey an adequate idea of the singular fruit they furnish. The nuts are 

 mostly double ; but triple,, quadruple, and sometimes, though very 



