SUMATRA, 73 
port towns, where the concourfe of inhabitants is mueh greater, tbcre 
are always large pkntatioas of them, to fupply the extraordinary demand. 
This tree, in all Tpecies, ftages and parts, has been fo elaborately, 
minutely and juftly defcribed by many writers, efpecially the celebrated 
Ruinphius in his Hortus AtnboinicnCs^ that it would be mere repetition 
in me to attempt a (cientific accDimt of it. I fhall therefore only add a 
few detached obfervations on it s growth* It thrives bell in a low fandy 
foil, near the fea, where it will produce fruit in four or five years. In 
clayey ground it feldora bears under feven to ten years. As you recede 
from the coaft the growth is proportionably flow, owing to the greater 
degree of cold in the hills, which is it's fevered enemy ; and it mufl at- 
tain there nearly it's full height before it is productive, whereas in the 
plains, a boy can generally reach it's firft fruit from the ground. Here, 
faid a dupatty^ if I plant a coconut or dooreen tree, I may expert to reap 
the fruit of it, but in Laboon fan inland diftrid) I fhould only plant for 
my great grand children. This very tedious growth may fecm exagge- 
rated, but it was repeatedly afferted to be, Jtf;?, teego g^ylair eirat^ (two 
or three generations) before the coconut trees arrived at complete matu- 
rity ; and in fome parts of the ifland, where the land is particularly high, 
I have been aflured that neither thofe, the betel nut, or pepper vines, 
will produce fruit at alU 
It has been remarked by fome writer, that the great palm tre? 
(j^hmniXy or paima dadjUJi^a) and the coconut tree, are never found to 
flourifh in the fame country. However this may hold good as a general 
aflertion, it is a fad that not one tree of that fpecies grows on the ifland of 
Sumatra, although the coconut arid many other varieties of the genus 
abound there. 
All the fmall iflands which lie off the coaft are &irted, near the fea 
beach, with «oconut-trees growing fo thick together that they almoft 
choke each other, whiift the interior parts are entirely free from them*. 
This beyond a doubt, is occafioned by the accidental floating of the nuts 
0 to 
