T//B COCOA PALM. 
S9 
tlirougli the air ; and tlius, during the lapse of centuries, 
the cocoa-palm has spread its wide domain from coast to 
coast throughout the whole extent of the tropical zone. 
It waves its graceful fronds over the emerald islands of 
tlie Pacilic, fringes the West Indian shores, and from the 
Philippines to Sladagascar crowns the atolls, or girds the 
sea-border of the Indian Ocean. 
But nowhere is it met with in such abundance as on 
the coasts of Ceylon, where for miles and miles one con- 
tin oous grove of palms, pre-eminent for beanty, encircles 
the " Eden of the eastern wave." [Multiplied by planta- 
A CEVLOifESE COCUA-Nirr OIL.IIJLU 
tions and fostered with assiduous care, the total number 
in the island cannot be less than twenty millions of full- 
grown trees ; and such is its luxuriance in those favoured 
districts, where it meets with a rare combination of every 
advantage essential to its growth— a sandy and pervious 
soil, a free and gemal air, unobstructed solar heat, and 
abundance of water — that, when in full bearing, it will 
annually yield as much as a ton weight of nuts— an 
example of froitfulness almost unrivalled even in the 
torrid zone. 
No other tree in the world, no other plant cnltivated by 
