the fruit of the Cocos nucifera of Linnaeus, a species of palm tree that is common within the tropics. This tree grows from 50 to 100 feet in height, has no branches, but produces at top a cluster of leaves from 12 to 14 feet in length. The coco nut is as large as a man's head, and a single tree generally yields about 100 of these, which are disposed in clusters near its top. The exterior rind is thin and tough; and underneath it there is a quantity of very tough fibrous matter of a brownish-red colour. Of this, which in its manufactured state is called coir, ropes and coarse sail-cloth are made. Beneath this fibrous material is the shell of the nut, which is extremely hard, susceptible of a high polish, and when sawed in two is employed as bowls for domestic use. The kernel is white, and somewhat hard, about half an inch in thickness, and filled with a milky fluid of a very agreeable flavour. When the nut is green, this cavity is quite filled with the milk. Besides the nut and its milk, this tree (one of the most valuable, perhaps, in the world), exudes, when the wood is bored, a mild beverage called mirra, which when new drawn is without acidity or powers of intoxication, but when kept above 24 hours becomes vinegar. Oil is expressed from the kernel. Several species of the palm produce the liquid called toddy, from which arrack is distilled. A kind of sugar is produced from the mirra. The leaves are used for thatching houses, and the wood is employed for the purposes of house and ship carpentry.