THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Feb. 1, 1865. 



302 ON THE COCOS-DE-MER. 



each year's fishery. Care will of course be taken that only such hanks are 

 selected for stocking as have the rocks which compose them raised well 

 clear of the surrounding sand. 



By this system, adapted as it is from those of the English and French 

 edible oyster fisheries, several advantages will be secured, and all the 

 dangers to which the pearl oysters are now exposed will be avoided. The 

 young growing molluscs, safe on their carefully-watched laying at Tuti- 

 corin, will be secured from the choking sands of their natural banks, 

 as well as from their alleged enemy, the soorum, the effects of which 

 are probably the same as those caused by the mussels on the edible 

 oyster laying in the Colne. It is during the period of their growth that 

 the pearl oyster is so exposed to these dangers, and very frequently banks 

 have been found well stocked with young oysters, and giving promise of 

 a lucrative fishery, at a preliminary examination, which, when the time 

 of the fishery arrivea, are bare, all their inhabitants having died and 

 been washed away. But if preserved during the period of growth in the 

 artificial nursery, and only placed out when they have reached maturity, 

 the oysters can then form their pearls in security until the season for 

 fishery arrives, and well-stocked pearl-banks may be reckoned upon for 

 each year. 



Thus it is hoped that, adopting these carefully-considered plans, and 

 improving upon them as experience and watchful investigation dictate 

 from year to year, a regular and unfailing source of revenue will be 

 secured to the State, and the Tinnevelly pearl-banks will, after laying 

 dormant for thirty years, regain the immemorial renown which was con- 

 ceded to them, alike in the days of Ptolemy, of Marco Polo, and of 

 Hamilton. They form the most ancient fishery in the world, and, now 

 that science and careful supervision has been supplied, they will no 

 longer be the least remunerative. 



ON THE COCOA-NUT OF THE SEYCHELLES ISLANDS, OR 

 COCOS-DE-MER (LODOICEA SEYCHELLARUM). 



BY GEORGE CLARK.* 



The cocos-de-mer is undoubtedly the most remarkable plant in this 

 colony and its dependencies, one of which is the only spot in the world 

 where it is indigenous. The fruit was known long before the plant 

 which produces it, or the locality in which it was found ; and various 

 fables were invented as to its origin, and marvellous virtues were attri- 

 buted to its qualities. The few known specimens of it which existed 

 were valued at an enormous price, till, in 1742, the discovery of the 

 Seychelles Archipelago made known the habitat and nature of this sin- 



* From the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



