it a valuable species of oil is
expressed, which is in great demand for a variety of purposes. The
refuse oil cake is called Poonae, and forms an excellent manure.

A calcareous concretion is sometimes found in the centre of the nut,
to which peculiar virtues have been attributed.

Along the Gulf of Cariaco there are many large coco walks. In moist
and fertile ground it begins to bear abundantly the fourth year; but
in dry soils it does not produce fruit until the tenth. Its duration
does not generally exceed 80 or 100 years, at which period its mean
height is about 80 feet. Throughout this coast a coco tree supplies
annually about 100 nuts, which yield eight flascos of oil. The flasco
is sold for about 1s. 4d. A great quantity is made at Cumana, and
Humboldt frequently witnessed the arrival there of canoes containing
3,000 nuts.

Throughout the South Sea Islands, coco-nut palms abound, and oil may
be obtained in various places. Some of the uninhabited islands are
covered with dense groves, and the ungathered nuts, which have fallen
year after year, lie upon the ground in incredible quantities. Two or
three men, provided with the necessary apparatus for pressing out the
oil, will, in the course of a week or two, obtain enough to load one
of the large sea canoes. Coco nut oil is now manufactured in different
parts of the South Seas, and forms no small part of the traffic
carried on with trading vessels. A considerable quantity is annually
exported from the Society Islands to Sydney. They bottle it up in
large bamboos, six or eight feet long, and these form part of the
circulating medium of Tahiti. The natives use the bruised fronds of
_Polypodium crassifolium_ to perfume this oil. _Evodia triphylla_, a
favorite evergreen plant with the natives of the Polynesian Islands,
is also used for this purpose.

The most favorable situation for the growth of the coco palm is the
ground near the sea-coast, and if the roots reach the mud or salt
water, they thrive all the better for it. The coco-nut walks are the
real estates of India, as the vineyards and olive groves are of
Europe. I have seen these palms growing well in inland situations,
remote from the sea, but always on plains, never upon hills or very
exposed situations, where they do not arrive to maturity, wanting
shelter, and being shaken too violently by the wind. The stems being
tall and slight, and the whole weight of leaves and fruit at the head,
they may not unapt