330 A MISSION TO VITI. 
agree in showing the progression of the cocoa-nut tree 
from west to east. Numerous cocoa-nuts are annually 
drifted on the eastern shores of New Holland, where 
they often germinate and grow, until the seedlings are 
killed by the low temperature of the winter months. 
Ceylon, now covered with immense forests of cocoa-nut 
palms, has a distinct tradition that at one time the tree 
was unknown there, and there is even a statue not far 
from Galle, recording the event of its becoming known 
there ; whilst the oldest chronicles of the island, known 
by the name of the Marawansa, and the historical value 
of which is now fully admitted, are absolutely silent on 
everything relating to the cocoa-nut, while they never 
fail to record every accession to the plantations of other 
fruit-trees made by the native princes. This seems to 
prove that the cocoa-nut was not always known, and 
that it would have much sooner found its way there 
than it did if it had been indigenous to India Proper ; 
whilst the fact that all other species comprising the 
genus Cocos are strictly confined to the interior of tropi- 
cal America, and only this one species (C. nucifera, Linn.), 
a sea-side plant, unaffected by drifting on sea-water, is 
spread over Polynesia and the Old World generally, 
offers another important consideration. But even if the 
introduction of the cocoa-nut tree to Asia took place 
after the assumed departure of the Polynesian tribes, the 
latter must have been well acquainted with the art of 
making toddy, as there is a number of palms in Asia, 
about the true native country of which there is no doubt 
whatever, yielding toddy—a beverage of so ancient a 
date that even the oldest language of that continent has 
