THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [February i, 1889. 
native proves or topes are grown, the trees 
so close together as absolutely to exclude, in 
many cases, light and fresh air, even 30 nuts 
per annum was a high average. We have seen 
coconut palms, under exceptionally favourable 
circumstances of shelter, room, light, air, soil, 
and fertilizing matter, bearing 100 nuts and 
even 200 nuts per annum ; and one of the best- 
informed writers in our columns on the subject of 
coconut culture has expressed the opinion that with 
proper culture, including the free application of 
nitrogenous and phosphatic manures, whole planta- 
tions might be made to yield several times the 
usual average crop, without affecting, except favour- 
ably, the longevity of the trees. The companion 
referred to asked us as to the life of a coconut 
tree, and we had to reply that we could give no 
definite reliable opinion. Sixty years was often 
vaguely stated, but, although we have seen apparent- 
ly old trees ceasing to bear, we have seen others 
spring into new activity with improvement of the 
soil in whioh they were growing, while there are 
many groves of coconut trees in and around 
Colombo which we have been in the habit of 
seeing at intervals for half a century in which we 
have observed no appreciable change. They were 
mature when we first saw them, and they still 
show no signs of decay. It would be interesting 
to learn, on reliable authority, what the real life 
ot the average coconut palm is, and what the 
comparative longevity of palms grown for fruit 
bearing and those devoted to "toddy-drawing" 
(abstraction of the saccharine juice of the flower- 
spathe) for distillation into the spirit known as 
arrack. At first sight it might seem that the 
constant abstraction of the juice would be the 
more exhausting process, but we are bound to 
state that in the dense groves of the special arrack 
region near Kalutara, although fruits were few and 
far between f the trees themselves looked fresh and 
flourishing. Some of the ground in which the 
very finest and tallest trees were growing was 
semi-swampy, so that with the effect of the close 
planting added, the atmosphere was permanently 
damp. The result in the case of many of the 
trees, bent towards the horizon as is the tendency 
of this species of palm, was that abortive roots 
were sent out and root processes assumed on 
the lower face of the trees, for lengths several feet 
along the trees above the ground. Sometimes the 
adoption of root processes can be seen on trees 
growing as straight as coconut palms can, at a 
considerable height up the stem. It looks as if 
imperfectly growing trees instinctively threw out 
roots to obtain the benefit of the damp atmosphere 
and then started growing de novo. In some cases 
where the root masses were not sufficiently loos- 
ened, they retained their hold of the soil, and 
the stem above the bulb-like formation broke away. 
It such cases it waB curious to notice the close 
resemblance of the fibrous stem-wood to the coir 
fibres of the nuts. Fibrous as the wood is and 
always soft at the heart, the vascular bundles 
of fibres in the outer portions attain great density 
with age, the weight of a specimen in Mendis's list 
being 70 lb. per cubit foot. Besides being useful 
as rafters, reepers, and spouts in house construc- 
tion, choice specimens are used in cabinet work, 
nice chairs and tables being made of it. It is 
known in Europe as " porcupine wood." The pre- 
sent is a good opportunity to obtain superior 
specimens of the wood, care being taken in the 
choioe, for all old wood is not hard. In any use 
made of the coconut trees, the soft inside portions 
thould bo cleared away ; otherwise in their decay 
they form the habitat of the maggot of the great 
black coconut beetle. Reverting to the question of 
age, we need scarcely tell our local readers that 
the curious scars left on the cylindrical stems, as 
set after set of grand pinnate leaves or rather 
branches fall away, give no more decisive proof 
of the number of years the trees have existed, 
than " rings" do in the timber of ordinary trees 
grown in the tropics. Annular marks here, in- 
stead of indicating annual growths, are as frequent 
as the changes of wet and dry seasons. Hence 
the extravagant estimates of age of trees such 
as 7,000 years, wildly attributed to Adansonia 
digitata, by writers adopting the principle applicable 
to in Europe. We may notice here that interesting 
and pleasant and convenient as the journey along 
the seaside by railway is, only a carriage or coach 
ride along the old road can give an idea of the 
wealth and beauty of the vegetation and foliage : 
palms and jak and bread-fruit trees, country almonds, 
mangoes, cashew trees, mangosteens, lovi-lovi, 
bilimbis, and when the swamps approach the road, 
pandanus and varieties of mangrove intermingling 
with ferns and flowering shrubs. 
The railway will command beautiful views of 
river, lake, sea, sward, fort, town and hills in 
the distance at Kalutara, but a drive will be 
necessary to obtain a sight of the beautiful ban- 
yan which spans the road, its horizontal branches 
and buttressing or snake-like stems being richly 
adorned with ferns and other epiphytal growths. 
The railway will in some cases run between per- 
fect walls of coconut palms, so densely set 
together, that one of the greatest difficulties in 
surveying the line was that of obtaining anything 
like lengthened " sights " through the thousands 
of closely-planted columnar growths. Such stret- 
ches of the railway will give travellers a vivid 
idea of the prevalence of this special cultivation 
along the south-western shores of Ceylon. For 
several years after the railway is opened, palms 
on the sides of the line will have to be cleared 
away, as they obey the tendency to lean towards 
the open space where there is available light and 
air. With so many stations too, we may look for 
the same process which has taken place on the 
Colombo-Kalutara section, the erection of nice 
dwellings, with gardens and garden cultivation of 
a variety of trees and plants, to relieve the mono- 
tony of the ubiquitous coconut palms. We have 
already alluded to the effects of close planting 
as injurious to healthy growth in the case of 
such fruit trees as coconuts, the bread-fruit (which 
is forced into tallness, while its true habit is 
umbrageousness), jaks, mangoes, and so forth. 
Grateful too as the shade was to our party, while 
inspecting the course of the line, we could not help 
feeling that " more light " would help in the growth 
of a more lively and robust race of people than 
those who crowd the densely-shaded groves along 
the seashore. We were not merely amazed at the 
number of human abodes concealed amidst groves 
which almost completely shut out the sun, but 
struck with the contrasts presented between the 
really handsome houses of renters, headmen, and 
well-to-do traders, and the often semi-ruinous huts 
of the fishermen, husbandmen and poorer classes 
generally. We felt that houses and people as 
well as palms were too closely crowded, and we 
were pleased to believe in the opportunities for 
swarming out which the railway will afford. The 
inland pasture grounds can be improved, and by 
means of the lime and laterite formations which 
abound, especially as Beruwala is approached and 
onwards to Bentota, the swamps can be redeemed. 
The gneiss metamorphosed into cabook exists in 
very varied forms, from soft rich clay, passing 
rapidly into excellent soil with exposure to the 
atmosphere, to hard ironstone masses or nodules 
