A WONDERFUL TREE 97 



the Andaman group where the coconut pahn is found 

 growing- in a state of nature. Why, when this is the 

 case, these happy isles should be uninhabited, when 

 the coconut palms of the dangerously-exposed Lacca- 

 dive archipelago support a considerable population, is 

 one of those mysteries that no doubt admits of an 

 easy explanation. We who live in great cities in an 

 age of shoddy and steam-power, are apt to forget the 

 potency in human affairs of plain, raw produce such 

 as coconuts : let us, then, pause and read what one of 

 the earliest of European travellers in the East, Ludovico 

 di Varthema, writes, though incoherently and not 

 entirely correctly, about the power of the coconut 

 palm : — 



I will describe another tree to you, the best in 



all the world, which is called Tenga, and is formed 



like the trunk of a date tree. Ten useful things are 



derived from this tree. The first utility is wood to 



burn ; nuts to eat ; ropes for maritime navigation ; thin 



stuffs which, when they are dyed, appear to be made 



of silk ; charcoal in the greatest perfection ; wine, water, 



oil and sugar ; and with its leaves which fall off they 



cover the houses, and these ward off water for half a 



year. Were I to declare to you in what manner it 



accomplishes so many things you would not believe 



it, neither could you understand it. The said tree 



produces the above-named nuts in the same manner 



as the branch of a date tree ; and each tree will 



G 



