No. 57. — 1906.] coconut cultivation. 



43 



*> Commonly cultivated throughout the warmer parts of the 

 Island." The late Dr. Trimen, F.R.S., in his " Handbook to 

 the Flora of Ceylon," is more explicit, his statement being : 

 " Universally cultivated throughout the low-country, es- 

 pecially near or on the sea coast ; but not wild." A. very 

 experienced Ceylon coconut (as well as cinnamon, coffee, 

 and tea) planter — Mr. W. B. Lamont, who first came to the 

 Island in 1841, and still survives near Ratnapura— gives the 

 following reasons, as the results of his observations in 

 different districts of the Island, why the coconut cannot be 

 regarded as indigenous : — 



" We do not find in the coconut tree, as it appears in Ceylon, 

 the characteristics of an indigenous plant ; we do not find 

 it growing to maturity, and producing its seeds in the midst 

 of the other natural growth ; but wherever Nature resumes 

 her sway and maintains it for a few years on land in which 

 this palm grows, we see it pine, cease to bear fruit, and ulti- 

 mately die off ; the neighbourhood and agency of man seem 

 necessary not only to its propagation and well-being, but to 

 its existence. It is only found as a cultivated plant ; 

 starved and neglected indeed it may be, but never totally 

 abandoned to Nature for a long period of years." 



Again, as Tennent so well puts it : — 



"The presence of the coconut palm throughout Ceylon is 

 always indicative of the vicinity of man, and at a distance 

 from the shore it appears in those places only where it has 

 been planted by his care. The Sinhalese believe that the 

 coconut will not flourish 4 unless you walk under it and 

 talk under it' ; but its proximity to human habitations is 

 possibly explained by the consideration that if exposed in 

 the forests it would be liable, when young, to be forced down 

 by the elephants, who delight in its delicate young leaves. 



" In the deepest jungle the sight of a single coconut 

 towering above the other foliage is, in Ceylon, a never- 

 failing landmark to intimate to a traveller his approach to 

 a village. The natives have a superstition that the coconut 

 will not grow out of sound of the human voice, and would 



