SG8

A DISCOURSE

BOOK IV.

or almost desire) it were sufficient to employ his meditations and hishands, as long as he were to live, though his years were as many as the

have a crop of rice, wheat, and other grain ; I have seen fair and beautiful Palm -trees illthe inland, remote from the sea, always in plains, never upon hills, where they come to nomaturity, cither because in low grounds they shelter one the other, or that on the hills the•winds shake them loo violently, to the no little detriment of tlieir ffuit; being tall and ten-der with all their boughs and fruit on the top, they are obnoxious to the wind, the wholeweight being at the head, the body high, tender, and fragile : They may be fitly comparedto the mast of a ship with round top and top-mast, without the help of shrouds to supportit. These trees are planted; by sowing the Cocoes or Nuts in a bed, and covering themwith earth: a little time will put forth-a- shoot, the ordinary product of seed; arrived atsome growth, they are transplanted into a place designed for that purpose ; there rankedin fit distance, order, and proportion, they remain till arrived to perfection, and beingplanted in a line, make a fair show in the field, so pleasant to the natives, that no gardenin Europe is with more care manured, or of greater, if of equal satisfaction. This hathbeen experienced by presenting them with our rarities, who neglect them, and sigh afterthe Palm-trees of their own country ; though there is not a more melancholy and unpleasantsight to Europeans , than to be in a Palm-orchard, where nothing is to be seen but trunksof trees set in order, which appear withered without any foliage; .all the greenefs beingabove the sight, there is little enjoyed: beheld at a distance, no prospect is more grateful.Being young plants, tlieir mortal enemies are the cattle, which rifle their beauty, and withtheir teeth do them no little damage; that begets anecefsity to encompafs them with fences.These plants are manured at small-expense; ordinarily they require not much watering:grown to some bignefs, they lay ashes to their roots, all sorts of shell-fish, particularly littlefish, called by the natives Cuta, putrefied at the foot of the tree, are of admirable effect;but all trees cannot beso indulged; this is-supplied by mud .taken out of salt marshes, bvwhich their fruitfulnefs is very much advanced; They bear fruit at five years if planted insoft artificial beds, so taking root sooner and with greater ease; at seven, if,the earth befirm and hard, spreading their roots leisurely and with more difficulty, I only know onespot of ground in the island of Ceylon so fruitful and proper for these trees, that in twoyears they come to their growth, get strength, and are laden with fruit. The fruit of thistree, (whatsoever the species is) comes forth thus : From the stem of the Palm , shoots outa t w Jg } made like a man’s arm, not unlike a Moorish scimitar, which the natives callPoyo. This opens and puts forth a cluster of thirty, fifty, eighty, sometimes.an hundredCoquinhos or nuts, about the bignefs of an bazle-nut; should all come to perfection thequantity were stupendous, but the parent wanting sap and nourishment for so many youngones, the greatest part fall off and come to nothing; few remain of the firfl: appearingmultitude, twelve or fourteen in every cluster may come to maturity, according to thegoodnefs of the ground, or the soiling employed : Nature supplies the lost ones, by puttingforth immediately another cluster before the first is ripe or cleared of the flower; thesame happens to the latter fruit, and so to more, every month a bunch appearing, andall the trees having four or five clusters of different ages, some in theblofsom, others newlycleared of the flower, as big as ordinary nuts, others larger, some come to perfection;

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