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Wlieii ill the bud they are enclosed within a spath, 

 or woody sheath, which opens as the flower expands. 

 When the fruit begins to form, the spath separates 

 itself into two hemispherical parts of about three 

 feet long by two broad. Each of these bunches pro- 

 duces more than a thousand coconuts, and nothing 

 can be more beautiful than to see one of these trees 

 covered with fruit, shaded by the upper branches 

 which bend over in the form of an arch. 



The fruit, like the tropical coconut, has two cc^ 

 verings; the outer is hard externally and of a green 

 colour, which gradually changes into a yellow, and 

 the inside is filled with a kind of filaceous wool ; the 

 interior shell is woody, smooth and round, and so 

 hard that it would be difficult for the nut to germi- 

 nate were it not for the two stems which are attache 

 ed to the upper part of the shell, and separated from 

 the nut only by a thin pellicle. The kernel is spheri- 

 cal, a little hollow in the middle, white, and of a very 

 agreeable taste, and when fresh contains a milky 

 liquor which is pleasant and refrigeratory. A great 

 number of these nuts are exported every year to 

 Peru, where they are highly esteemed. The oil 

 obtained from them by expression is well tasted and 

 much used. The country people make use of the 

 sheaths as bags for little articles of dress, and with 

 the leaves manufacture baskets and thatch their 

 Cabins. The buds, if cut when young, yield great 

 quantities of sap, which is thick, and furnishes a 

 more agreeable sirop than that of the sugar cane ; 

 but the ti-ee commonly dies after this operation. 



