The coco-nut is usually planted as follows:—­Selecting a suitable place, you drop into the ground a fully ripe nut, and leave it.  In a few days a thin lance-like shoot forces itself through a minute hole in the shell, pierces the husk, and soon unfolds three pale green leaves in the air; while, originating in the same soft white sponge which now completely fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots pushing away the stoppers which close two holes in an opposite direction, penetrate the shell, and strike vertically into the ground.  A day or two more, and the shell and husk, which in the last and germinating stage of the nut are so hard that a knife will scarcely make any impression, spontaneously burst by some force within; and, henceforth, the hardy young plant thrives apace, and needing no culture, pruning, or attention of any sort, rapidly arrives at maturity.  In four or five years it bears; in twice as many more it begins to lift its head among the groves, where, waxing strong, it flourishes for near a century.  Thus, as some voyager has said, the man who but drops one of these nuts into the ground, may be said to confer a greater and more certain benefit upon himself and posterity, than many a life’s toil in less genial climes.  The fruitfulness of the tree is remarkable.  As long as it lives it bears, and without intermission.  Two hundred nuts, besides innumerable white blossoms of others, may be seen upon it at one time; and though a whole year is required to bring any one of them to the germinating point, no two, perhaps, are at one time in precisely the same stage of growth.

Coco-nuts form a considerable article of export from many of the British colonies:  375,770 were exported from Honduras in 1844, and 254,000 in 1845; 105,107 were shipped from Demerara, in 1845; 3,500,000 from Ceylon in 1847.

They are very abundant on the Maldive Islands, Siam, and on several parts of the coast of Brazil.  Humboldt states, that on the south shores of the Gulf of Cariaco, nothing is to be seen but plantations of coco-nut trees, some of them containing nine or ten thousand trees.

Ceylon is one of the localities where the greatest progress has been made in this species of culture.

In 1832 several Europeans settled at Batticaloa, expressly for the purpose of cultivating this palm to a large extent.  They planted cotton bushes between the young trees, which were found to ripen well, and nurse and shade them.

There are now an immense number of coco-nut topes, or walks, on the coasts of the island, and about 20,000 acres of land are under cultivation with this tree.

The value of this product to Ceylon, may be estimated by the following return of its exports in 1847, besides the local consumption:—­

L
Declared value of nuts 5,485
Ditto of Coir 10,318
Kernels, or Copperah 6,503
Shells 210
Oil 19,142
Arrack 11,657
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Total L53,315