illSCILLAXEOUS NUTS. 263 



The nuts, when cleaned of their husks, are too well 

 known to call for a further description here. In coun- 

 tries where these nuts are plentiful, their contents 

 form nearly the entire food of the natives, the milky 

 fluid serving for drink, and the more solid parts as 

 a substitute for meat and bread. The cocoanut is prob- 

 ably utilized in more ways, and for a greater variety of 

 purposes, than any other kind known, and it would 

 require a volume to briefly enumerate them. Of recent 

 years there have been plantations made of this nut on 

 the coast of southern Florida, and one of the most 

 extensive of these is by a man from New Jersey, but 1 

 have not heard from him of late, or seen any reports 

 as to the results of his experiments. It is reported 

 that there are about 350,000 cocoanut trees now grow- 

 ing in Florida. 



CocoAKUT, Double. — This is the fruit of another 

 lofty palm, Lodoicea SechellarUm, and is usually consid- 

 ered the largest member of the order. It is a native of 

 the Seychelles islands, in the Indian ocean. It is said 

 to reach a hight of_a hundred feet, with a stem two feet 

 in diameter. The fruit is a large, oblong nut, with a 

 rather thin rind or husk, and when this is removed the 

 nut appears to be double, or two oblong nuts firmly 

 united, a kind of twin formation, the entire nut weigh- 

 ing from thirty to forty pounds. These immense nuts 

 are produced in bunches of eight to ten, the cluster 

 sometimes weighing from three to four hundred pounds. 

 It is supposed that these nuts require about ten years to 

 grow and mature. They are useless as food, but the 

 shells are manufactured into various useful articles by 

 the natives, and they are also transported to other coun- 

 tries and valued as curiosities. There is a great demand 

 for the leaves of this palm for making hats, baskets, etc., 

 and as the trees have to be cut down to obtain them, 

 they are becoming rather scarce. 



