and well-drained soil; and although
it flourishes where no other tree will grow, it welcomes a soil of a
richer quality and produces fruit in proportion. Eighty nuts per annum
are about the average income from a healthy tree in full bearing, but
this, of course, depends much upon the locality. This palm delights in
the sea-breeze, and never attains the same perfection inland that it
does in the vicinity of the coast. There are several varieties, and
that which is considered superior is the yellow species, called the
"king cocoanut." I have seen this on the Maldive Islands in great
perfection. There it is the prevailing description.

At the Seychelles, there is a variety peculiar to those islands,
differing entirely in appearance from the common cocoa-nut. It is
fully twice the size, and is shaped like a kidney that is laid open.
This is called by the French the "coco de mer" from the large numbers
that are found floating in the sea in the neighborhood of the islands.

The wood of the cocoa-nut tree is strong and durable; it is a dark
brown, traversed by longitudinal black lines.

There are three varieties of toddy-producing palms in Ceylon; these are
the cocoa-nut, the kittool and the palmyra. The latter produces the
finest quality of jaggery. This cannot be easily distinguished from
crumbled sugar-candy which it exactly resembles in flavor, The wood of
the palmyra is something similar to the cocoa-nut, but it is of a
superior quality, and is much used for rafters, being durable and of
immense strength.

The kittool is a very sombre and peculiar palm. Its crest very much
resembles the drooping plume upon a hearse, and the foliage is a dark
green with a tinge of gray. The wood of this palm is almost black,
being apparently a mass of longitudinal strips, or coarse linen of
whalebone running close together from the top to the root of the tree.
This is the toughest and most pliable of all the palm-woods, and is
principally used by the natives in making "pingos." These are flat bows
about eight feet in length, and are used by the Cingalese for carrying
loads upon the shoulder. The weight is slung at either end of the
pingo, and the elasticity of the wood accommodates itself to the spring
of each step, thereby reducing the dead weight of the load. In this
manner a stout Cingalese will carry and travel with eighty pounds if
working on his own account, or with fifty if hired for a journey. A
Cingalese will carry a