The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-05-01
N OF THE SEA.
A Fruit Which Grows Only in the Islands
of the Seychelles Group.

OF the Seychelles Group.
The COCO de mer or double cocoanut
palm tree is one of the largest and
most remarkable palms. 1t is a native
of and only found on a small group Of
islands called the Seychelles. These
form an archipelago in almost the
middle of the Indian ocean consisting
Of about eighty islands. Seychelles
are the home of the so called sea cocoa
nut or Maldive double cocoanut-thO
COCO de mer. It is the fruit of a Pc
culiar and remarkably fine species ct
the palm tribe, indigenous to and only
found on certain smaller islands of the
group, and nowhere else In the world.
Botanists give it the name Lodoicoa
Sehchellarum.
The fruit is a large, double, oblong,
kidney-shaped nut, covered with q
thin husk. After the removal of this
the fruit has the appearance of TIVE
oblong nuts firmly Joined together
for over half their length, and which
often weighs from thirty to forty
pounds. They are borne in punches,
each consisting Of nine or ten nuts, 60
that a whole bunch will often weigh
400 pounds. It takes ten years to
ripen it's fruit, the albumen of which
is similar in appearance and lines the
inner surface Of the nut, but, unlike
that Of the common cOcoanut, is too
hard and horny to serve as food. The
shell is converted into many useful
and ornamental articles by the island
natives. But the most important part
is the leaves, which are made into hats
and baskets.
So great has the demand been of late
years for these that to obtain them the
trees YER cut down, and, no care being
taken to extend new plantations, in
1864 the leading botanists in England
petitioned the government for protee-
ton against this wasteful destruction,
for fear that the SLOW growing, unique
species would eventually become ex-
tinct. It appears, however, from recent
information that in one of these islands
alone there are many thousands of the
trees.
1t is true that for many centuries
the fruit of this palm tree was known
only from specimens of it, which, float
ing from the islands, we're borne to
and cast upon the Maldive and other
coasts, the islands, the home Of the
tree, being at that period unknown.
So rare, curious and mysterious a fruit
was held in high regard and esteemed,
not only for a religious significance,
but in medicine it WA believed to be @
sovereign antedote to poison. FroE
it's rarity it commanded a good price
in the Orient, The husk of the nut ID
a black, rind like substance, a quarter
of an inch thick. Under this is a shell
something in character and thickness
like the ordinary edible cocoanut. The
kernel of the nut lines the interior
of the shell to a thickness of abouG
an inch.
The COCO de mer was of old believed
by the superstitious Orientals to be the
fruit of some submarine palm tres.
Rare finds of such nuts as were thrown
up on the seashore we're valued by the
Brahmin and Hindoo fakirs or mendi-
can't priests, who, cutting them apart,
would decorate the polished halves
with bands of carving in low relief Of
inscriptions from the Hindoo scriptures,
So finished, these formed valued and
sacred begging bowls, in which mendi-
can't priests received aims Of money
or food.