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the Passiflora quadrangularis-and the water-lemon (Passiflora laurifolia). The stem of the first is herbaceous, the fruit round, of a light purple, when ripe, with a whitish and rather pleasant pulp. The Passiflora quadrangularis is the most valuable for cultivation here; and it has borne fruit in the gardens of the Horticultural Society. The water-lemon is a larger and more woody plant: the flowers are handsome, and very fragrant; and the fruit something in the shape and of the size of a lemon, full of a watery but very agreeable tasted juice, whence the name. The plant grows wild in the woods, but is often cultivated for the sake of its fruit. It was introduced into England about the same time with the pineapple, but it has not met with equal attention.

On the American continent, and especially in Brazil, where the productions of the vegetable kingdom are very numerous and luxuriant, there are many varieties of grenadilla, if not distinct species, with which botanists do not appear to be very well acquainted; indeed, the forests and savannahs of Brazil appear to offer the richest harvest for botanical research of any places now on the surface of the globe. Piso, in his natural history of Brazil, enumerates and gives figures of several sorts of grenadilla, under the name of Murucuja.

One, he says, has five-lobed leaves and purple flowers, with oblong fruit, larger than any European pear, filled with a mucilaginous pulp, of a scent and flavour that nothing can exceed. Another has the same leaf and flavour, but fruit in the form and size of an apple, the pulp of which has a vinous flavour. There are many other sorts, but these are described as the best. The grenadillas generally, which are called parchas by the Spaniards, have a pleasant sweetish acid, with a fragrance something between that of a melon and a strawberry.

COCOA-NUT-Cocos.

The cocoa-palm is supposed to be a native of the south-east of Asia, and is found wild in some of the small islands off the shores; but it has been introduced into almost every part of the tropical regions. Its quality of bearing the neighbourhood of sea water is very favourable to its migrations. There are five species enumerated and described by the botanists; but the most valuable is the cocos nucifera, or cocoatree, properly so called.

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The nucifera is a very tall tree, the trunk of which is composed of hard and strong fibres, which cross each other like net-work. There are, strictly speaking, no branches; but the leaves are from twelve to fourteen feet long, with a very strong middle rib, to each side of which the sword-shaped leafets are attached. The flowers come out round the top of the trunk, each cluster inclosed in a long spatha or sheath. When these have arrived at maturity, the sheath opens, and the male flowers gradually fall off, leaving the embryo fruit. In a moist and fertile soil the cocoa-palm bears in four years; in a dry region fruit is not produced

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till it has been planted ten years. The fruit consists externally of a thin but tough rind, of a brownish-red colour; beneath which there is a quantity of very tough fibrous matter, of which cordage and coarse sail-cloth are sometimes made. Burckhardt says that ships coming from the East Indies to Djidda have cordage made of the cocoa-nut tree. Inclosed within this fibrous mass is the shell, of great firmness, and used for many domestic purposes. While the nut is green, the whole hollow of the shell is filled with an agreeable, sweetish, refreshing liquor. When the nut is gathered, a formation of albumen takes place upon the inside of the shell, producing that white, firm, pleasant-tasted, but rather indigestible, substance, which is called the kernel of the nut. Like the kernels of most nuts, that of the cocoa is very nutritious, from the great quantity of fixed oil that it contains; but that is also the ingredient to which its indigestible quality is owing. A tree generally furnishes about an hundred cocoas. The stem of the cocoa-nut tree is very tough and durable, and used for constructing the abodes of the people in the warm countries where it grows, and the leaves are employed as thatch; while the ribs answer the same purpose as osiers in the making of baskets and other wickerwork. The tender shoots at the top of the cocoa-nut tree may be used as esculents, and are very tender and delicate; but they are costly, as they cannot be obtained except at the expense of the tree.

The finest arrack in the East Indies is made from the juice of the cocoa-nut tree. This juice, before it is distilled, is called toddy; and those trees from which it is to be obtained are not suffered to bear fruit. There are two ways of obtaining the toddy: they either cut off the monthly shoot from which the fruit would be produced, and collect the sap in jars from the wound; or they make a perforation in the trunk

of the tree, which they keep plugged up, unless when they are about to collect the sap. When put in vessels, and kept out of the sun, the toddy undergoes the vinous fermentation, and is fit for distilling; but if it be exposed to the sun, it undergoes the acetous fermentation, and is changed into vinegar.

The cocoa-palm generally reaches the age of from eighty to a hundred years; and its average height is about eighty feet. Its growth is thus more rapid

than the other palms.

The other species of cocoa are not so valuable. Cocos butyracea is very mucilaginous, and also very oily. The pulp of the nuts is used for fatting hogs; and the natives of South America make a sort of butter from it. The Guinea cocoa-nut (Cocos guiniensis) is much smaller than the others, the trunk not being above one inch in diameter, and twelve feet high. It is tough and hard, and covered with prickles; when cleared of the bark it is made into walking-sticks, which are black, strong, light, and take a fine polish. It grows abundantly in the island of Tobago, after which island the sticks used to be named in France. The fruit is about the size of a cherry: it may be eaten, but it is very acid, and not pleasant; though the wild hogs in Jamaica devour it greedily. In some parts of America a sort of wine is made from it. It is found most plentifully in the northern parts of Colombia. The great maccawtree (Cocos aculeata) grows abundantly in the West India islands. It is a large palm, the trunk being from a foot to a foot and a half in diameter, and rising to the height of about thirty feet. The fruit is small, of a globular form, but a little flattened, and not more than an inch in diameter. The pulp that surrounds the nut has an astringent taste, but the kernel is pleasant. The Cocos nypa is thick, but very low; and in its fruit resembles the cocoa-nut,

only the nuts are smaller. It grows in salt marshes and by the mouths of rivers, in the south-eastern parts of Asia.

All the species yield fixed oil: that of the cocoanut is clear and sweet; and some are of opinion that the true palm oil is obtained from the great maccaw

tree.

It would be strictly proper to give here some account, for which there are very interesting materials, of the chocolate-tree and the coffee-tree; but we reserve them for another portion of this work.

THE CASHEW-NUT-Anacardium occidentale. The cashew-nut-tree bears a considerable resemblance to the walnut, and the leaves have nearly the same scent. The fleshy receptacle, vulgarly called apple, which the tree produces, is of an agreeable

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