216 COCOA-NUT. 
the attacks of insects. In France it is much in demand 
for combs, knife-handles, and button-moulds; .and it 
has been stated that the quantity of box-wood annually 
sent from Spain to Paris is alone estimated at the value 
of more than 10,000 livres. 
An oil distilled from the shavings of box-wood has 
been found to relieve the tooth-ache, and to be useful in 
other complaints ; and the powdered leaves destroy 
worms. 
HEXANDRIA. 
233. The COCOA-NUT is a woody fruit, produced^ in- 
nearly all the countries of hot climates ; of oval shape, from 
three or four, to six or eight inches in length, covered with a 
Jilrous husk, and lined internally with a white, frm, and 
jleshy kernel. 
The tree (Cocos-nucifera) which, produces the cocoa-nut is 
a kind of palm, from forty to sixty feet high. It has, on its 
summit only, a kind of leaves, which appear almost like im- 
mense feathers, each fourteen or jifteen feet long, three feel 
broad; and winged. Of these the upper ones are erect, the 
middle ones horizontal, and the lower ones drooping. The 
trunk is straight, naked, and marked with the scars of the 
fallen leaves. The nuts hang down from the summit of the 
tree, in clusters of a dozen or more together. 
The external rind of the cocoa-nut has a smooth 
surface, and is of somewhat triangular shape. This 
encloses an extremely fibrous substance of considerable 
thickness, which immediately surrounds the nut. The 
latter has. a thick and hard shell, with three holes at 
the base, each closed by a black membrane. The 
kernel lines the shell; and is sometimes nearly an 
inch in thickness, and. encloses a considerable quantity 
of watery liquid, of. whitish colour, which has the name 
of milk... 
Food, clothing, and the means of shelter and pro- 
tection, are all afforded by the cocoa-nut-tree. The 
kernels of the nuts, which somewhat resemble the fil- 
bert in taste, but. are of much firmer consistence, are 
