n so aptly styled by Linnaeus the princes of the vegetable
kingdom. Its straight and rather slender-looking stem, not more than a
foot in diameter, rises, without a leaf, to the height of from 90 to
100 feet, and at the summit is superbly crowned with a drooping plume,
consisting of about a score of magnificent leaves, of a broadly-oval
form. These leaves, the larger of which are twenty feet in length and
ten in width, are beautifully marked with regular folds, diverging
from a central supporting chine; their margins are more or less deeply
serrated towards the extremities; and they are supported by footstalks
nearly as long as themselves. Every year there forms, in the central
top of the tree, a new leaf, which, closed like a fan, and defended by
a downy, fawn-coloured covering, shoots up vertically to a height of
ten feet, before it, expanding, droops gracefully, and assumes its
place among its elder brethren; and as the imperative rule pervades
all nature, that, in course of time, the eldest must give place unto
their juniors, the senior lowest leaf annually falls withered to the
ground, yet leaving a memento of its existence in a distinct ring or
scar upon the parent trunk. It is clear, then, that by the number of
these rings the age of the tree can be accurately determined; some
veterans shew as many as 400, without any visible signs of decay; and
it seems that about the age of 130 years, the tree attains its full
development.

As in several other members of the palm family, the male and female
flowers are found on different individuals. The female tree, after
attaining the age of about thirty years, annually produces a large
drupe or fruit-bunch, consisting of five or six nuts, each enveloped
in an external husk, not dissimilar in form and colour to the coat of
the common walnut, but of course much larger, and proportionably
thicker. The nut itself is about a foot in length; of an elliptic
form; at one end obtuse, at the other and narrower end, cleft into two
or three, sometimes even four lobes, of a rounded form on their
outsides, but flattened on the inner. It is exceedingly difficult to
give a popular description when encumbered by the technicalities of
science; we must try another method. Let the reader imagine two pretty
thick vegetable marrows, each a foot long, joined together, side by
side, and partly flattened by a vertical compression, he will then
have an idea of the curious form of the double cocoa-nut