VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS. 359 
Guatemala is any organized attempt to prepare either 
the oil or fibre (coir or cobre), and the nuts are shipped 
to the United States or to England. Prolific bearers, 
these palms require no care after they come into bear¬ 
ing in the fourth year; and as they bear heavily by 
the seventh year, a young walk soon becomes a source 
of profit. Usually a tree produces a flower-spathe every 
month; so there are generally on a tree nuts in all 
stages. On a single spadix I have counted five thou¬ 
sand nine hundred and fifty staminate or male blos¬ 
soms, and fifty-two pistillate or female. Of the latter 
not more than thirty, and usually only twenty, develop 
into nuts; but a young tree in a good soil will proba¬ 
bly bear three hundred and sixty nuts per annum, 
worth $9. In a walk, however, it is a good tree 
that is worth $3 per annum. 
The trade in green nuts is of course limited ; but they 
usually sell at the rate of two cents apiece. No more 
delicious drink is found in the tropical fruits than the 
rich milk of the nut when so green that the shell is easily 
cut with a knife. When fully ripe, the nuts may be 
piled in a damp place and left to germinate. The milk 
disappears, and its place is occupied by a porous mass 
completely filling the cavity and of the consistency of 
sponge-cake, quite edible withal. As the shoot pushes 
through the eye and breaks through the thick husk, the 
innocent-looking sponge seems to absorb the meat of 
the coconut; when this is finished, the plant has, as it 
were, hatched itself from the old shell, and is ready to 
continue life on its own basis. The coconut presents a 
good illustration of the development of pinnate or feather 
leaves from palmate (or leaves shaped like a fan), — all 
