COQUILLA NUTS. 



297 



this fine palm, the large capsules lie on the ground, as seen 

 in the Plate, whilst the majestic tuffc of pinnated leaves, 

 twenty feet in height, rises like a gigantic plume of feathers. 

 The capsules are said to resemble negroes^ heads, and are 

 called by the natives, Cabeza de negro. The Yegetable 

 Ivory Palm is a native of the low valleys of the Peruvian 

 Andes. We are indebted to Sir WilHam Hooker for our 

 knowledge of this fine palm, and for proving it to be the 

 produce of the Corosso nuts ; a very interesting article will 

 be found upon this subject in the 1st volume of ^ Hooker^s 

 Journal of Botany,^ 1849. They are used extensively by 

 the turners in making small trinkets to imitate ivory. 

 About 80,000 of the nuts were imported in 1852. 



CoQUiLLA Nuts. — The seeds of another Palm, Attalea 

 fumfera (Plate VIII. fig. 40), previously alluded to in 

 speaking of Piassava, In Plate X., fig. 51 is a Coquilla 

 nut, and fig. 52 a parasol handle turned out of one of these 

 nuts. The seed of the Attalea was known long before the 

 palm which produces it, and as the seed clearly indicated a 

 close affinity to the Cocoa-nut, it was called by Qsertner, 

 Cocos lajoidea, and by Targioni Tozzetti, LitJiocai'jJus cocci- 

 formis, Coquilla nuts are often three inches in length : they 

 have a small cavity in the centre, in which the seed is found ; 



