HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
56 
grows in the form of a pyramid ranged in several separate stories: its foliage is fine, 
and it yields a few almonds, that have an agreeable taste. 
The Avocat is a handsome tree, and yields a pear which incloses a large kernel: 
the substance of this fruit is like butter, which when seasoned with sugar and lemon- 
juice, it is a pleasant eatable, though of an heating quality. 
The Jacq is a tree of a beautiful foliage, and bears a monstrous fruit, which is 
the size of a large pumpkin, whose rind is of a fine verdant colour, and entirely 
shagreened. It j[S full of grains, whose coats, consisting of a white, glutinous, 
and sweet skin, are alone eaten. It smells like rotten cheese, and is a powerful 
stimulant. 
The Tamarind has a very fine top: its leaves are placed in regular opposition to 
each other, and close in the night. Its pod affords a mucilage, which makes a 
pleasant and cooling beverage. It has perpetuated itself in the woods. 
There are several kinds of orange trees, one of which bears an orange called by 
distinction the Mandarine. A large kind of Pamplemouse, an orange of a red 
colour and an indifferent taste: and a lemon tree that bears a large fruit, which 
yields but little juice. 
The Cocoa tree has been transplanted hither. It is a kind of palm tree that flou¬ 
rishes in the sand, and one of the most useful trees in the commerce of India: it 
serves to give oil, and fibres for cables. It is said that at Pondicherry each cocoa 
tree annually produces a pistole. It delights so much in the vicinity of salt water, 
that salt is thrown into the hole in which the fruit is planted, to facilitate the open¬ 
ing of the bud. The cocoa appears to be designed to float in the sea, from its 
hairy coat, which keeps it above the water, and the hardness of the shell, which is 
impenetrable to it. This palm is the inhabitant of the southern shores, as the fir is 
the prevailing tree of the north, and as the date is the pride of the arid mountains of 
Palestine. Not long since it was discovered that a crab took up its abode at the foot 
of the cocoa tree: nature has provided it with a long claw, terminated by a nail, 
with which it draws out the substance of the fruit, through the holes at its extremity. 
This animal is found on the Island of Palms, to the north of Madagascar, which 
was discovered in 1769, by the shipwreck of a vessel named L’Heureux, that perished 
in its voyage to Bengal. This crab served the crew for food. 
There has lately been discovered, in the island of Sechelle, a palm tree that bears 
double cocoa nuts, some of which weigh more than forty pounds. The Indians 
