Dr Cleghorn on the Coco-Nut Tree and its Uses. 175 
processes of assimilation and nutrition on which its growth 
and reproduction depend, and this qualification alone increases 
its value a hundred-fold to the natives of a sandy coast or the 
dry and sultry plain. Possessed of a habitation darkened by 
a clump of coco-nuts, a jak, and a palmyra tree, a native is 
envied, and considered an independent proprietor.* 
The stem of the coco-nut tree at the bottom varies from 
one to two feet in diameter, gradually lessening towards the 
top, where its girth is considerably reduced. The leaves 
sprout from the top in the form of a crown, and are about 
twelve in number; those at the top and in the centre stand 
erect, while the middle and the lower range bend gracefully 
over, and are often from 14 to 15 feet long by about 3 feet 
broad in the widest part. 
In the middle of the leaf runs a strong mid-rib, thick and 
grooved at its base, but tapering to a point at the extremity. 
From the side of the rib hang pinne, or long thin strips 
called olé by the natives. They are usually from a foot 
to a foot and a half long, according to their position on the 
rib, and give to the leaf a light and feathery appearance. 
These pinne, when plaited, form what are called Aithi, and 
answer a number of purposes in the domestic arrangements of 
a native hut. They come into play to form temporary sheds 
in their numerous festivals. The poorer classes have no other 
roof over their heads than one made of Kithi. Everywhere 
they meet the eye in the form of mats, partition-walls, or 
screens, contributing to the privacy of their humble dwellings. 
The fruit grows in clusters at the top of the tree and around 
the base of the leaves (vide Plate II. fig. 2). Each nut is 
rather oval in form, and when full grown, with the outer husk 
on, is about the size of a man’s head: with the outer husk off, 
about the size of an ostrich’s egg, with three small depressions 
of a quarter of an inch in diameter at the end next the stem. 
These depressions are the eyes of the fruit, one of them form- 
ing the hole through which the germ sprouts when the nut is 
* “ The Indian nut alone 
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can, 
Boat, cable, sail, mast, needle, all in one.” 
G. HERBERT. 
