The nuts vary in size, their quality, however, does not at all depend upon this property, but upon their internal appearance when cut, intimating the quantity of astringent matter contained in them. If the white or medullary portion which intersects the red, or the astringent part be small, has assumed a bluish tinge, and the astringent part is very red, the nut is considered of good quality, but when the medullary portion is in large quantity, the nut is considered more mature, and not possessing so much astringency, is not deemed so valuable. This palm is cultivated in gardens and plantations. The latter are usually close to the villages, and are extremely ornamental. Like the Malays themselves, the areca palm prefers the neighbourhood of the sea, which is most conducive to the perfection of the fruit, as the coca shrub of the Peruvian mountaineers delights in the slopes of the Andes. It is stated that a fertile palm will produce, on an average, eight hundred and fifty nuts annually, the average production in the plantation is about fourteen pounds weight for each palm, or ten thousand pounds per acre. The price they realize to the grower is about two shillings the hundredweight. The _addaca_, or betel nut, is a staple product of Travancore. In 1837 the number of trees growing there was stated in the survey to be 10,232,873, which, at the average rate named, would produce 63,000 tons of nuts. Nearly half a million trees are in cultivation in Prince of Wales’ Island, which would produce about 3,000 tons more. The Pedir coast of Sumatra produces annually about 4,700 tons, of which half is exported. The Chinese import near 3,000 tons annually, exclusive of their supplies from Cochin-China, the amount of which is not known, but, without doubt, more than another 3,000 tons. Many ships freighted solely with these nuts sail yearly from the ports of Sumatra, Malacca, and Siam. When there is no immediate demand for the areca nuts they are not shelled, but preserved in the husk, to save them from the ravages of insects, which attack them nevertheless, almost as successfully. Of the nuts produced in Travancore, upwards of 2,000 candies,[26] prepared nuts, are annually exported to Tinnevelly and other parts of the country, and about 3,000,000 of ripe nuts are shipped to Bombay and other places, exclusive of the quantity consumed in the country, and for the inland trade.