370 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
husk and the shell gradually decay^ and^ forming a 
light manure^ facilitate the growth of the young plant, 
which gradually strikes its roots deeper, elevates its 
stalk, and expands its leaves, until it becomes a lofty, 
fruitful, and graceful tree. 
There are many varieties of the cocoa-nut tree, in 
some of which the fruit is rather small and sweet. - For 
each variety the natives have a distinct name, as well as 
for the same nut in its different stages of perfection. I 
have the names of six sorts, but it is unnecessary to 
insert them. 
The juice of the nuts growing on the sea-shore does 
not appear to partake, in any degree, of the saline pro¬ 
perty of the water that must constantly moisten the roots 
of the tree. The milk of the nuts from the sandy 
beach or the rocky mountain, is often as sweet and 
as rich as that grown in the most fertile parts of the 
valley. 
On first arriving in the islands. We used the cocoa-nut 
milk freely, but, subsequently, preferred plain water 
as a beverage ; not that the milk became less agreeable, 
but because we supposed the free use of it predis¬ 
posed to certain dropsical complaints prevalent among 
the people. Cocoa-nuts were formerly a considerable 
article of food among the common people, and were 
used with profusion on every feast of the chiefs; but, 
for some years past, they have been preserved, and 
allowed to ripen on the tree, for the purpose of pre¬ 
paring oil, which has recently become an article of 
exportation, although the value is so small as to afford 
them but little encouragement to its extended manu¬ 
facture. 
The cocoa-nut trees are remarkably high, sometimes 
