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Many cultivated plants thrive a short way from the sea which do 
not thrive a little way inland. It is often said both in the old and 
new world that Coconuts cannot be grown successfully 20 miles 
inland. This is not literally true, but it not often that Coconuts 
are to be seen any very great distance from the sea, or tidal waters. 
It is often said too that Nutmegs must smell the sea, and Clove 
trees must see it and certainly these plants depend greatly on the 
proximity of the sea, and seem to require sea-breezes in order 
for them to thrive. It is clear that this is not a question of soil only, 
nor dryness of atmosphere, although these plants are particular 
apparently on these points. 
Coconuts prefer sandy soil, and dry soil, but are often grown 
satisfactorily on clayey soil with very little sand. Coconuts grown 
in damp alluvial black river soil often grow to a full size and though 
apparently healthy never flower or fruit, and curiously are in such a 
case never attacked by coconut beetles. In a large Coconut estate 
at Telok Kurau, in Singapore, there was a patch of wet ground, all 
the trees round this patch were fine and heavily fruiting trees, but 
those on this patc h though equally good looking trees showed no 
signs of flowering nor apparently had they ever done so. When 
they died naturally, they were found never to have been touched 
by beetles to which the surrounding trees were liable. On a damp 
spot along the Bukit Timah Road were a large number of Coconut 
trees, of these a few in the drier spots fruited, but usually poorly, 
and in the damper spots not at all. These trees too were seldom 
if ever hurt by beetles which were abundant in the vicinity. 
Recently the land was opened up, and more or less drained, 
apparently for building sites, I now observe that a considerable 
number of the trees are showing signs of attack by red beetles. 
How far the soil, dryness, and atmospheric conditions respectively 
affect certain plants is not always easy to diagnose, and different 
plants of the same species are certainly affected differently by their 
surroundings. 
The Oleander grows and flowers well in Singapore town near 
the sea and also on high and dry Hills like the hill of the Lunatic 
Asylum. It however was not amenable to cultivation in the 
Botanic Gardens, refusing to flower and gradually dying away 
till two plants, one red and one white were received from Manila. 
To all visible appearance they were exactly like the ones grown 
in Singapore town successfully but which failed in the Botanic 
Gardens. The white one flowered but eventually died away, the 
red one on the other hand grew and flowered constantly and 
cuttings from it did equally well. 
The differences in dryness of atmosphere between Malacca and 
Singapore are by no means great, though the former is said to be 
dryer, yet several plants thrive in Malacca which are by no means 
as successful in Singapore, such are Zizyphus jujuba , which fruits 
there regularly but has, I think, never even flowered in Singapore. 
Mimusops Kauki of which big and handsome trees occur in 
