THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Feb. 1, 1865. 



306 ON THE COCO -DE-MER. 



Very useful and pretty little baskets, called " tentes,' ? are also made of 

 these leaves. They last for many years, and by washing and bleaching 

 may be always restored to their original colour. It is cut out into 

 various tasteful patterns, and made into fans, which are much admired 

 for their lightness and durability. Artificial flowers are also made of 

 it, which want nothing but colour to be a good imitation of nature. 

 Work-baskets (corbeilles) of great beauty and in great variety are made 

 by some of the Seychelles ladies, and some of these productions obtained 

 much admiration and a prize at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The 

 nerve which strengthens each leaflet is employed to stiffen hats made of 

 the leaf, each seam of the rows of plait being sewed over it. This may 

 also be split into fibres as fine as hair, and possesses considerable tena- 

 city. I have seen a little basket, of very complicated and delicate 

 structure, made of this material. It was manufactured by a lady of the 

 Vendries family, which is unrivalled for the taste and skill displayed in 

 the articles made from the coco-de-mer by its members. Mats of great 

 beauty and unequalled durability are also made of these leaves. The 

 extreme hardness and smoothness of their surface and the length and 

 strength of their fibres are unrivalled by any substance within my 

 knowledge. The expanded leaf forms an excellent thatch, nearly equal 

 to shingles in durability. Its strength is so great that when pinned 

 together with little skewers of bamboo, it forms a basket capable of 

 bearing nearly a bushel of fruit. 



The petiole forms a strong and durable paling and is also sometimes 

 used for small rafters. The trunk, when cut into lengths and split into 

 palisades, is used- instead of boards for the sides of houses, and will last, 

 I believe, as long as any wood. "When split in two and hollowed, it is 

 used for gutters for conveying water, and is almost imperishable. The 

 size of the nuts varies greatly. I have seen some which would not hold 

 a bottle and others which were sixteen times as large. These extremes 

 are rare, but a nut of ordinary size will hold from six to eight bottles. 

 "When intended to be preserved whole, they are kept in a damp place 

 till the perisperm has rotted away — a process which requires many 

 months to complete. During this process it not unfrequently happens 

 that flat-shelled snails introduce themselves into the nut and grow too 

 large to get out by the hole by which they entered, and die there, like 

 the weasel in the fable. They are then called Cocos legers. They are 

 pierced with an augur at one end, or the extremity is sawn off; 

 the orifice through which the germ sprouts is stopped up with a little 

 pitch, and a withe round the cleft converts it into a convenient bucket, 

 strong and tight. "When sawn longitudinally, it forms an elliptical 

 vessel, called " Coco scie," superior to everything else for baling out 

 boats. 



Three-lobed nuts are sometimes met with. I have possessed one with 

 five lobes, and have heard of one having as many as seven. The kernel 

 of the Lodoicea contains a portion of oil, but its excessive hardness and 



