114 NATURAL AND ECONOMICAL HISTORY 
It does not appear that the coco-tree is nearly as much 
cultivated in the West India islands as in the East. Mr 
Stewart, in his account of Jamaica, says, however, that 
" On some estates groves of them are planted, and an oil 
extracted from them to light the works during crop-time. 
Occasionally the nuts are served out to the slaves as an 
article of food." 
In many places along the coast coco trees thrive well 
upon the sandy soil near to the sea, where hardly any 
other plant will vegetate. Those coco groves, through 
which the eye can reach for a great extent, inter- 
mixed with the huts of the natives, composed entirely of 
coco leaves, form a very picturesque object. When the 
trees are full grown, the bare trunks rise like columns of 
from 60 to 90 feet in height, while the horizontal pinnated 
foliage interlace, by which means a grove resembles the 
long aisles and Gothic arches of a cathedral ; above these 
arches a profusion of fine leafy plumes rise from the centre 
of the trees, and project almost perpendicularly towards 
the sky, thereby adding greatly to the beauty and variety 
of the prospect. About twenty years since, the Colonial 
Government of Ceylon had it in contemplation to impose 
a tax upon coco trees, but, in consequence of the strongly 
marked aversion of the people to such a measure, the plan 
was abandoned. It is not unusual, however, for palm trees 
to be taxed directly, instead of indirectly, upon the products, 
as in Ceylon. On the Malabar coast, coco-nuts pay a land- 
tax of half a Janam for every tree that is in full bearing, 
old and young trees being exempted as unproductive. And, 
at Marzouck, in northern Africa, a tax of one dollar is 
levied upon every 200 date-trees *. 
• Buchanan's Travels through Mysore, &c. vol. ii. p. 40L Lyon*s 
Travels in Africa. 
