This tree does not attain a very large size, but its growth is
exceedingly regular and the foliage peculiarly rich and
plentiful. The fruit is something similar in appearance to a
small, unripe jack-fruit, with an equally rough exterior. In the
opinion of most who have tasted it, its virtues have been grossly
exaggerated. To my taste it is perfectly uneatable, unless fried
in thin slices with butter; it is even then a bad imitation of
fried potatoes. The bark of this tree produces a strong fibre,
and a kind of very adhesive pitch is also produced by decoction.
The cocoa-nut and palmyra woods at once introduce us to the palms
of Ceylon, the most useful and the most elegant class in
vegetation. For upward of a hundred and twenty miles along the
western and southern coasts of Ceylon, one continuous line of
cocoa-nut groves wave their green leaves to the sea-breeze,
without a single break, except where some broad clear river
cleaves the line of verdure as it meets the sea.
Ceylon is rich in palms, including the following varieties: The
Cocoa-nut. The Palmyra. The Kittool. The Areca The Date. The
Sago. The Talipot.
The wonderful productions of this tribe can only be appreciated
by those who thoroughly understand the habits and necessities of
the natives; and, upon examination, it will be seen that Nature
has opened wide her bountiful hand, and in the midst of a barren
soil she has still remembered and supplied the wants of the
inhabitants.
As the stream issued from the rock in the wilderness, to the
cocoa-nut tree yields a pure draught from a dry and barren land;
a cup of water to the temperate and thirsty traveler; a cup of
cream from the pressed kernel; a cup of refreshing and sparkling
toddy to the early riser; a cup of arrack to the hardened
spirit-drinker, and a cup of oil, by the light of which I now
extol its merits-five separate and distinct liquids from the same
tree!
A green or unripe cocoa-nut contains about a pint of a sweetish
water. In the hottest weather this is deliciously cool, in
comparison to the heat of the atmosphere.
The ripe nut, when scraped into a pulp by a little serrated,
semi-circular iron instrument, is squeezed in a cloth by the
hand, and about a quarter of a pint of delicious thick cream,
highly flavored by cocoa-nut, is then expressed. This forms the
chief ingredient in a Cingalese curry, from which it entirely
derives its richness and fine flavor.
The toddy is the sap which would nourish and fructify the blossom
and young nuts, were it allowed to accomplish its duties.
