lU BICTIOIsrAEy OF POPULAR NAMES COCOA 



nut oil. Eormerly tlie fibre was used for making coir ropes 

 only, but mthin the last tHrty years it has been manufactured 

 into floor-matting, brushes, and brooms, and is used for stuffing 

 cushions, as well as for many other purposes. The hard shell 

 is made into cups and other domestic utensils. The wood is 

 known as Porcupine-wood. 



Cocoa Nut, Double {Lodoicea sechellarum), — This may be con- 

 sidered the largest and most remarkable of palms. It is a native 

 of a small group of islands in the Indian Ocean called the Sey- 

 chelles. It is said to attain a height of 100 feet, its stem being 

 1 J to 2 feet in diameter, bearing at the summit a crown of fan- 

 shaped leaves. It is remarkable for growing in a socket of a hard 

 woody texture, perforated with holes made by the roots. This 

 curious appendage derives its origin from the cotyledon, which in 

 this palm attains the extraordinary length of 2 feet, growing 

 downwards like a root, having the germ (plumule) seated in its 

 tliickened end. When perfect the thick end opens on one side like 

 a sheath, out of which rise the first succeeding leaves of the plant, 

 roots also being produced, which make their exit by piercing the 

 end of the sheath. In time the nutriment of the nut becomes 

 exhausted, and the part of the cotyledon between it and the 

 young plant withers. The latter, however, retains its placental 

 vital connection with the sheath end of the cotyledon, which is 

 henceforth nourished by the plant, and increases in size with 

 its growth, which thus continues seated in the cradle of its 

 birth through life. This formation appears, however, to be 

 common to the j)alms, but very much more largely developed 

 in the Zodoicea. The fruit is a large oblong nut, covered 

 with a thin rind. After the removal of the outer envelope 

 or rind, the fruit has the appearance of two oblong nuts, 

 firmly united together, and often weighs 30 to 40 lbs. They 

 are borne in bunches, each consisting of nine or ten nuts, so 

 that a whole bunch will often weigh 400 lbs. It takes ten 

 years to ripen its fruit, the albumen of which is similar to that 

 of the common cocoa nut, but is too hard and horny to serve as 

 food. The shell is converted into many useful articles by the 



