7. What the date-palm is to the Arab, the cocoa-palm is to the Polynesian. Originally it would seem to have been. the sapphire expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Its cylindrical and slender stem, about two feet in diameter and from sixty to one hundred feet in height, with its crest of green, drooping, pinnated leaves, generally sixteen to twenty in number and from twelve to twenty feet in length, forms a conspicuous ornament of the tropical landscape. 8. The uses of this tree are manifold, and its valuable properties claim man's gratitude. Its hard, agate-like, polished timber, known as porcupine wood, is prized by the cabinet-maker; the hard nut which encloses its fruit the savage carves into handsome bowls and goblets; the milky liquid within has a sweet and delicious flavor, and is very wholesome, refreshing, and digestible; the fibrous husk can be woven into sails and cordage, or used for stuffing mats and cushions; the terminal bud, or palm-cabbage, is delicate eating; the central part of the stem, when young, affords a sweet and excellent food; the fermented sap yields the spirituous liquor so well known as arrack; the dried leaves can be employed for thatch; and the nut itself is a popular and justly prized dainty. The cocoa-palm ripens in about six years, and continues productive for seventy or eighty, each tree bearing annually from eighty to one hundred nuts. 9. It seems odd that the cocoa-nut trees should have such very small flowers, and yet such very large fruit. From a flower not larger than a grain of rice a great fruit will grow much larger than a man's head; but it takes a whole year for the fruit to grow to that size, ripen, and fall to the ground. The larger part of the cocoa-palm fruit is a thick husk, while the round hard nut itself is inside of the husk. We must understand, then, that the cocoa-nut as it hangs on the tree is at least six or eight times as large as the nut with which we are so familiar. If the fruit is left to ripen on the tree, the husk, which for a long time is green and full of juice, turns a brownish color, gets quite dry, and then falls off. When these great heavy nuts, especially if the husks be yet green and laden with juice, fall from the trees, they come down with great force, and people have been killed, while walking beneath the trees, by the nuts falling on their heads. 10. The flowers of the cocoa-nuts grow out of a kind of one-sided pod, which attains a great length and looks much like a curved sword. Out of a large and thrifty sword twenty or more large nuts will grow. To us, the nearest land of cocoa-nuts is that of the Ba hama Islands. 11. Sir Emerson Tennent, in his most interesting and valuable work on the island of Ceylon, speaks of the Palmyra palm. It is cultivated more or less in every district of Ceylon, but grows in such profusion over the north, and especially in the peninsula of Jaffna, as to form extensive forests, whence its timber is exported for rafters to all parts of the island, as well as to the opposite coast of India. 12. To the inhabitants of the northern provinces of Ceylon, this invaluable tree is of the same importance as the cocoa-nut palm is to the natives of the south. Its fruit yields them food and oil; its juice, palm wine and sugar; and its leaves, besides serving as roofs to their dwellings and fences to their farms, supply them with matting and baskets, with head-dresses and fans, and serve as a substitute for paper i. their deeds and writings, and in the sacred books which contain the traditions of their faith. 13. It has been said with truth, that a native of Jaffna, if he be contented with ordinary doors and mud walls may build an entire house, with walls, roof, and covering from the Palmyra palm. From this same tree he may draw his wine, make his oil, kindle his fire, carry his water, store his food, cook his repast, and sweeten it if he pleases; in fact, live from day to day dependent on his Palmyra alone. Multitudes so live, and it may be safely asserted that this tree alone furnishes one-fourth the means of subsistence for the population of the northern provinces of this island. 14. What is here said of the Palmyra palm of Ceylon is true in almost every particular of many other species of palm growing in various countries within the tropics. In a multitude of uses they are exceedingly important to the people of those summer lands. One palm-tree, however, must yet be mentioned, as it belongs to our own country, being a natural product of the Southern Atlantic States, and found as far north even as North Carolina, and this is the well-known palmetto. 15. In Florida the palmetto is very abundant, growing best in moist swampy situations, where are found the finest and tallest specimens, some of them attaining a height of more than a hundred feet. It is fond, too, of the seashore, where the trees may be seen growing plentifully in the white sand of the beach, just at the very edge of high water. 16. The palmetto is a very beautiful tree, and is that kind of a palm which has fan-shaped leaves, whilst the cocoa-nut is of that group of palms which have pinnated leaves. The palmetto is perhaps the hardiest of all the palms. The visitor in Florida is surprised to see with what indifference it endures the piercing cold northwest winds that sweep over that peninsula in winter; and while frost covers the land, the palmetto cheerily waves its broad fans on high, and smilingly greets the rising sun. |