The cocoa-nut palm, being the most useful of its entire tribe to the natives of the regions in which it grows, and furnishing many valuable and important commercial products, is the subject of careful cultivation in many countries. On the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India the trees grow in vast numbers; and in Ceylon, which is peculiarly well suited for their cultivation, it is estimated that twenty millions of the trees flourish. The wealth of a native in Ceylon is estimated by his property in cocoa-nut trees, and Sir J. Emerson Tennent notes a law case in a district court in which the subject in dispute was a claim to the 2520th part of ten of the precious palms. The cultivation of cocoa-nut plantations in Ceylon is thus described by Sir J. E. Tennent. “The first operation in cocoa-nut planting is the formation of a nursery, for which purpose the ripe nuts are placed in squares containing about 400 each; these are covered an inch deep with sand and sea-weed or soft mud from the beach, and watered daily till they germinate. The nuts put down in Appì are sufficiently grown to be planted out before the rains of September, and they are then set out in holes 3 feet deep and 20 to 30 feet apart.

. . Before putting in the young plant it is customary to bed the roots with soft mud and sea-weed, and for the first two years they must be watered and protected from the glare of the sun under shades made of the plaited fronds of the cocoa-nut palm, or the fan-like leaves of the palmyra.” The palm begins to bear fruit from the fifth to the seventh year of its age, each stock carrying from 5 to 30 nuts, the tree maturing on an average 60 nuts yearly.

The uses to which the various parts of the cocoa-nut palm are applied in the regions of their growth are almost endless, The nuts supply no inconsiderable proportion of the food of the natives, and the milky juice enclosed within them forms a pleasant and refreshing drink. The juice drawn from the unexpanded flower spathes forms “toddy,” which may be boiled down to sugar, or it is allowed to ferment and is distilled, when it yields a spirit which, in common with a like product from other sources, is known as “arrack.” The trunk yields a timber (known in European commerce as porcupine wood) which is used for building, furniture, firewood, &c.; the leaves are plaited into cajan fans and baskets, and used for thatching the roofs of houses; the shell of the nut is employed as a .water vessel; and the external husk or rind yields the coir fibre, with which are fabricated ropes, cordage, brushes, &c. The cocoa-nut palm also furnishes very important articles of external commerce, of which the principal is cocoa-nut oil. It is obtained by pressure or boiling from the kernels, which are first broken up into small pieces and dried in the sun, when they are known as copperah or copra. It is estimated that 1000 full-sized nuts will yield upwards of 500 ìb of copra, from which 25 gallons of oil should be obtained. The oil is a white solid substance at ordinary temperatures, with a peculiar, rather disagreeable odour, from the volatile fatty acids it contains, and a mild taste. Under pressure it separates into a liquid and a solid portion, the latter, cocoa-stearin, being extensively used in the manufacture of candles. Cocoa-nut oil is also used in the manufacture of marine soap, which forms a lather with sea water. Coir is also an important article of commerce, being in large demand for the manufacture of coarse brushes, door mats, and woven coir matting for lobbies and passages. A considerable quantity of fresh nuts is imported, chiefly from the West Indies, and sold as a dainty among the poorer classes, or used in the preparation of a kind of confection.