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planting, and it grows slowly for the first two years of its 
life. In favorable situations the tree begins to bear when 
six years old, and continues until seventy years, or even 
nger, 
It is said that the palm loves the company of man, and 
grows best near his habitation, and well may man return the 
love, for it furnishes him with all the necessaries, and many 
of the luxuries of life, requiring no cultivation or care. The 
wood is hard in old trees, and very ornamental, and is used 
for timber. The rootlets are eaten, or rather chewed as 
tobacco: the young leaves are boiled and eaten as cabbage ; 
when they are older they furnish a good surface to write on 
with a sharp point (cow-dung is usually rubbed in to make 
the characters more visible), and also to thatch houses, 
fence gardens, make baskets, mat-beds, fish-nets, fans, sieves, 
and hats; when old and dry, the stout midrib is used for 
clubs, paddles, rafters, fence posts; the ribs of the leaf- 
lets for brushes, torches, or the whole is burned to furnish 
potash. The husk of the nut is stripped off by means of a 
small stake fixed in the ground, and a man can strip a thou- 
sind nuts per diem, and the husks are then soaked for seve- 
tal months in water to separate the fibre, and finally twisted 
into rope, or woven into mats under the name of coir. This 
Tope is very strong and light, does not rot when wet, and 
floats on the water. Forty nuts usually yield six pounds of 
coir.. The undressed fibre of the husk is a capital polishing 
TT and sailors use nuts split in halves to rub down 
' Before the spathe opens it is often tapped, and a clear 
juice runs out which is fermented to form toddy, or boiled 
down to make jaggery, or palm sugar. This tapping is sup- 
posed to injure the tree if long continued. 
The ripe nut is cooked and eaten in various ways. When 
stated it is an ingredient of the best curries ; mixed with 
rh potato, or kalo, and baked, it forms & fine pudding. 
e Pacific islanders chew up the meat and rub it into their 
