COCOA-NUT PALM, USES OF. 108 
on the Malabar coast and in Ceylon, as well as on the eastern 
side of the Bay of Bengal, whence it ascends both the Burram- 
pooter and Ganges Rivers to considerable distances. Likewise, 
in most of the islands of the great Archipelago forming the 
India aquosa of old authors, from the Sunda Isles to Molucca, 
and in those of the Pacific Ocean. It is, moreover, cultivated in 
various tropical parts of the New World. The Cocoa-nut 
(Cocos nucifera) and the Oil Palm (Eleis guineenis) have been 
remarked by a distinguished botanist, Mr. Brown, as the only 
two of their group (Cocoine) found in the Old World. 
The Cocoa-nut Palm is one of the great ornaments of the 
shores of tropical countries. The cylindrical stems, with a 
diameter of about two feet, attain an elevation of from sixty 
to one hundred feet, and are surmounted with their crowns of 
numerous, wavy, and which from their appearance may almost 
be said to be feathery leaves. These are by botanists often 
called fronds, and by travellers their footstalks are often called 
branches. They are gigantic in size, being about twenty feet 
in length, with a strong, tough stalk, which forms the midrib, 
and has a number of narrow and long leaflets ranged along the 
two sides, The fruit is borne in bunches, of which there are 
from eight to twelve, each béaring, on trees growing in favora- 
ble situations, from five to fifteen nuts, so that each tree may 
produce from eighty to one hundred nuts annually. Mr. 
Bennett has well observed that the tough and thick (and it may 
be added, light) covering of the nut protects the germ while it 
floats even on salt water, and it is thus borne to barren spots, 
where it germinates, and causes even the smallest islets, just 
appearing above water, to become covered with clumps of Cocoa- 
nuts, as the fruit falling springs up and forms young trees 
around the original tree. Thus the Cocoa-nut is found on 
barren, uninhabited islands, as well as in populous districts ; and 
though it attains the greatest perfection on the coast, it may 
yet be seen at considerable distances in the interior, and even 
at some elevation, as 800 feet in Ceylon. The Singalese 
have a saying, that Cocoa-nut trees only flourish where you 
can walk and talk among them. This evidently means that the 
trees must not be planted too close together; nor should any 
undershrubs be allowed to grow about their roots. 
The Laccadive Islands are famed for the good quality of the 
