THE COCO-NUT PALM. 



** Kanari," a tree which, he sajs, is a native of the same country 

 as the sago palm, and is not found to the westward, though it has 

 been introduced to Celebes and Java. I have not been able to 

 distinguish its botanical name; but Mr. Crawfurd describes 

 it as a large handsome tree, and one of the most useful pro- 

 ductions of the Archipelago. It bears a nut of an oblong shape^ 

 nearly the size of a walnut, the kernel of which is as delicate 

 as that of a filbert, and abounds with oil. The nuts are either 

 smoked and dried for use, or the oil is expressed from them in 

 their recent state. It is used for all culinary purposes, and is 

 purer and more palatable than that of the coco-nut. The kernels, 

 mixed up with a little sago meal, are made into cakes and eaten 

 as bread. 



THE COCO-NUT PALM. 



This palm {Cocos nuciferd) is one of the most useful of the exten- 

 sive family to which it belongs, supplying food, clothing, materials 

 for houses, utensils of various kinds, rope and oil ; and some of its 

 products, particularly the two last, form important articles of com- 

 merce. An old writer, in a curious discourse on palm trees, read 

 before the Eoyal Society, in 1688, says, " The coco nut palm is 

 alone sufficient to build, rig, and freight a ship with bread, wine, 

 water, oil, vinegar, sugar, and other commodities. I have sailed 

 (he adds) in vessels where the bottom and the whole cargo hath 

 been from the munificence of this palm tree. I will take upon me 

 to make good what I have asserted." And then he proceeds to 

 describe and enumerate each product. Another recent popular 

 writer speaks in eloquent terms of the estimation in which it is 

 held, and the various uses to which it is applied. 



" Its very aspect is imposing. Asserting its supremacy by an 

 erect and lofty bearing, it may be said to compare with other trees, 

 as man with inferior creatures. The blessings it confers are in- 

 calculable. Tear after year the islander reposes beneath its shade, 

 both eating and drinking of its fruit ; he thatches his hut with its 

 boughs, and weaves them into baskets to carry his food ; he cools 

 himself with a fan plaited from the young leaflets, and shields his 

 head from the sun by a bonnet of the leaves ; sometimes he clothes 

 himself with the cloth-like substance which wraps round the base 

 of the stalks, whose elastic rods, strung with filberts, are used as 

 a taper. The larger nuts, thinned and polished, furnish him with 

 a beautiful goblet ; the smaller ones with bowls for his pipes ; the 

 dry husks kindle his fires ; their fibres are twisted into fishing-lines 

 and cords for his canoes. He heals his wounds with a balsam 

 compounded from the juice of the nut ; and with the oil extracted 

 from its pulp embalms the bodies of the dead. The noble trunk 

 itself is far from being valueless. Sawn into posts, it upholds the 

 islander's dwelling ; converted into charcoal, it cooks his food ; and, 

 supported on blocks of stones, rails in his lands. He impels his 

 canoe through the water with a paddle of the wood, and goes to 



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