Ball — On the Colloquies of Garcia De Orta. 403 
both in food and for burning. Another kind of oil is made from fresh 
cocoa-nuts by pounding and pouringwarm water on them. This yields 
a purgative medicine, and the copra oil is good for the nerves, the 
patient being placed in a bath of it in. a wooden trough. Garcia ex- 
plains in a manner unlike his usual style the relaxing character of the 
oil as compared with the constipating character of the fruit, by saying 
that the former is formed of air, and the latter from the earth. The 
young sprouts constitute an agreeable vegetable which tastes like 
chestnuts. 
[Eeferences. — Clusius [Acosta), p. 35 ; Zinschoten, ii., pp. 43, 51 ; 
Bontius and Piso, lib. iv., p. 45 ; AmsUe, i., p. 77 ; Fluchiger and 
Sanbury^ p. 655 ; Khory, p. 555.] 
(2) [The Coco de mer, Lodoicea seychellarum, Labill.] 
To it many medicinal virtues were attributed by the older writers, 
including its being an antidote to poison. According to Garcia it was 
thrown up on the shores of the Maldives. He states that — "The common 
: report is that these islands were once part of the Continent, and being 
i low, they were inundated and these palms remained there rooted in 
■ the soil now covered by the sea, and being very old they produced 
( these large Cocos. They have neither leaves nor trunk from which 
ito judge whether they are of the same species (as the common) or 
mot." 
This description clearly refers to the Coco de mer of the Seychelles, 
!the nuts of which are drifted eastwards to the Maldives, and have given 
trise to much speculation and myth since the earliest times. Of their 
ireputed virtues Garcia is most incredulous. 
[References. — Linschoten, i., p. 75 ; Piso in Mantissa Aromatica, 
pp. 203-226 (an elaborate disquisition) ; Ainslie, ii., p. 127 ; Khory ^ 
p. 533.] 
COLLOQUY XYII. 
(1) Do COSTO (2) E DA COLLERICO PaSSIO. 
[(1) Kostos — The root of Aplotaxis auriculata, D'C. Aucldandia 
mi^ws, Talc] 
JSTames — Cost or cast, Arabic ; uplot in Gujarat ; pucho in 
Malacca (the common name in India at present is pacliah). 
The costus grows in the region between Eengal, Delhi, and Cam- 
bay, i.e. the land of the Mandou (Mandu), and it comes also from 
Chitore, from whence come waggons laden with this uplot or costus, 
