Dr Cleghorn on the Coco-Nut Tree and its Uses. 177 
Topes of coco-nut trees pay a small tax to Government, 
varying in amount in different districts. Single trees in 
gardens or on cultivated land pay no tax, unless the latter is 
left waste, when a small assessment is imposed upon each 
tree. Ward, in his work on the Hindus (III. 107), written 
forty years ago, gives the following rate at which trees were 
rented at that time in Bengal :—“ A mango tree, one rupee; a 
coco-nut tree, eight annas; a jak, one rupee; a tamarind, one 
rupee; a betel nut, four annas; a talu,* four annas; a date, 
two annas; a vilvu,} four annas; a lime tree, four annas.”’ 
The tree is propagated by the nuts, which, when planted 
thoroughly ripe, come up usually in a few months. The coco- 
nut tree is planted with the fibrous shell in May, one foot and 
a half deep, and in good ground comes up in November. The 
first leaf is single, and the young plant is transplanted before 
it divides. In seven years the tree begins to bear, and at about 
fifteen years it is in full bearing. In the notes descriptive of 
the Laccadives, in the “ Madras Journal of Literature and 
Science,” it is stated that the coco-nut tree “requires some 
attention for the first year, and after transplanting, until it 
takes root; it may then be left to itself, and comes into bear- 
ing in periods varying from ten to twenty years, according to 
the soil. It continues bearing from seventy to eighty years. 
From 60 to 70 nuts is a fair average annually, of which 5 rupees 
per 1000 is the value in the islands.” This is something 
less than one pie for each. In Madras they sell from 3 to 5 
rupees a hundred; in the adjoining districts, from 1 rupee to 
232100. Each tree is said to throw out one leaf and one 
flowering spathe every month. It is probable that the time 
which an individual tree takes to come into flower, and the 
number and size of the leaves and spathes it throws out, de- 
pend more upon exterior causes, as soil, climate, and the care 
bestowed upon its nurture, than upon any uniform law which 
would enable us to speak positively upon the subject. Porter, 
in the ‘* Tropical Agriculturalist” (p. 255), writes, “‘ Where the 
plant has been constantly watered, the first bud will appear in 
the fourth or fifth year; but if it has been left merely to 
obtain moisture from rain, the flowering will be delayed till the 
* Palmyra Palm. Tt Wood apple. 
