June, 1910.] 



507 



Miscellaneous Products. 



a single nut without any ornaments 

 being sold for 50 and more gold pieces." 



The fame of the Sea Cocoa-nut was so 

 great in the 16th century that it found a 

 place in Camcens' famous epic (X 136). 



" Nas ilhas da Maldiva nace a pranta 

 No profundo das aguas soberaua 

 Cujo porno contra o veneno urgente 

 He tido por antidoto excellente." 



" O'er lone Maldivia's islets grows 

 the plant, 



Beneath profoundest seas, of sover- 

 eign might, 



Whose pome of ev'ry Theriack is 

 confest, 



By cunning leech of antidotes the 

 best." (Burton). 



Another account of the Sea Coco-nut 

 and description of the Maldive Islands we 

 find in the "Itinerario" of JohnHuyghen 

 Van Linschoten (1596), who had spent five 

 years (1581-89) in Goa, and had seen a 

 great part of Eastern Asia. The follow- 

 ing quotation is taken from the edition 

 of the " Hakluy t Society " : " Right over 

 against the Cape of Comariin, 60 miles 

 into the sea westward, the Islands 

 called Maldyva doe begin, and from this 

 cape on the north side they lie under 

 7 degrees, and so reach south-east, till 

 they come under 3 degrees, on the south 

 side, which is 140 miles. Some say there 

 are 11,000 islands, but it is certainly 

 known, they cannot be numbered. The 

 Inhabitants are like the Malabares : some 

 of these Islands are inhabited, and some 

 not inhabited, for they are very lowe, 

 like the countrie of Cochin, Cranagnor, 

 etc., and some of them are so lowe, that 

 they are commonlie covered with the 

 sea : the Malabares say, that those 

 Islands in time past did ioyne past unto 

 the firme land of Malabar, so that the 

 Sea in process of tyme hath eaten them 

 away. There is no merchandize to be 

 had in them;, but only coquen, which 

 are Indian nuttes, and cayro which 

 are the shelles of the same nuts, and 

 that is the Indian hemp, whereof they 

 make ropes, cables, and other such 



like There are some 



of these nuttes in the said Island 

 that are more esteemed then all the 

 nuttes in India, for that they are good 

 against allpoyson, which are varie faire 

 and great and blackish : I saw some that 

 were presented unto the viceroy of 

 India, as great as a vessel of 2 canes 

 measure, and cost above 300 Pardawen 

 which were to send unto the King of 

 Spaine. Of this tree and her f ruites, to- 

 gether with the usage thereof I will dis- 

 course more at large in the declaring of 

 the Indian trees and fruits," 



We are looking in vain for a more 

 detailed description of the fruit in the 

 II volume of the Itinerario, where a 

 great number of plants are described. 



The best account of the Maldives 

 is that by Francois Pyrard who was 

 shipwrecked there in 1601. His des- 

 cription contains also the following 

 short note on the Double-Cocoa-nut : 

 "The King has, besides his revenues, 

 certain rights, e.g., everything that is 

 found on the seashore belongs to the 

 king, and nobody has the courage to 

 touch anything of the kind in order to 

 keep it, but all must bring what they find 

 to the king, whether it be a piece of a 

 wrecked ship, pieces of wood, a box or 

 other things carried to the shore. The 

 same obtains with regard to a certain 

 nut which is sometimes washed ashore. 

 It has the size of a man's head and can 

 be compared with two large melons 

 grown together. People call it Tavar- 

 carre, and they believe that it comes 

 from a tree growing at the bottom of 

 the sea. The Portuguese call it " cocoa 

 des Maldives." It has medicinal properties 

 and carries a high price. Very often on 

 account of this Tavarcarres, the servants 

 and officers of the kind maltreat a poor 

 man if he is suspected of having found 

 such a nut ; if somebody wants to take 

 revenge on his neighbour he accuses him 

 of having a nut in his possession, in 

 order that his house may be searched, 

 and if anybody becomes rich on a sudden 

 and within a short time people begin to 

 say that he found a Tavarcarre, as if 

 this were a great treasure." 



More credulous than Clusius and D'Orta 

 as regards the wonderful properties 

 of the Sea Cocoa-nut is Willam Piso, a 

 Dutch physician, who had travelled 

 in Brazil between 1636 and 1641, and who, 

 by his writings added considerably to 

 the scientific knowledge of the West 

 Indies. He devotes a whole chapter 

 written in elegant Latin to the " Nux 

 Medica Maldivensium." He first of all 

 excuses himself, because he gives the 

 figure of the fruit only instead of the 

 whole plant ; but nobody, he says, can 

 expect the illustration of a plant which 

 has been devoured by the sea and 

 is now growing at a depth of 16 

 fathoms. The introduction of the chapter 

 gives a vivid idea of the high esteem 

 in which the Sea Coco-nut was held 

 for centuries, and at the same time, 

 of the way in which scientific subjects 

 were treated 300 years ago. It runs as 

 follows : "Amongst the immense benefits 

 which the Divine Providence has show- 

 ered upon mankind during the last cen- 

 turies, one of the most valuable is the 

 discovery of so many medicaments des* 



