The _wood_ is of yellowish colour, close-grained, very hard and heavy, and admits of a beautiful polish. On these accounts it is much used by turners, by engravers on wood, carvers, and mathematical instrument makers. Flutes and other wind instruments are formed of it; and furniture made of box-wood would be valuable were it not too heavy, as it would not only be very beautiful, but its bitter quality would secure it from the attacks of insects. In France it is much in demand for combs, knife-handles, and button-moulds; and it has been stated that the quantity of box-wood annually sent from Spain to Paris is alone estimated at the value of more than 10,000 livres. An oil distilled from the shavings of box-wood has been found to relieve the tooth-ache, and to be useful in other complaints; and the powdered _leaves_ destroy worms. HEXANDRIA. 233. _The COCOA-NUT is a woody fruit, produced in nearly all the countries of hot climates; of oval shape, from three or four, to six or eight inches in length, covered with a fibrous husk, and lined internally with a white, firm, and fleshy kernel._ _The tree_ (Cocos nucifera) _which produces the cocoa-nut is a kind of palm, from forty to sixty feet high. It has, on its summit only, a kind of leaves, which appear almost like immense feathers, each fourteen or fifteen feet long, three feet broad, and winged. Of these the upper ones are erect, the middle ones horizontal, and the lower ones drooping. The trunk is straight, naked, and marked with the scars of the fallen leaves. The nuts hang down from the summit of the tree, in clusters of a dozen or more together._ The external rind of the cocoa-nut has a smooth surface, and is of somewhat triangular shape. This encloses an extremely fibrous substance of considerable thickness, which immediately surrounds the nut. The latter has a thick and hard shell, with three holes at the base, each closed by a black membrane. The kernel lines the shell; and is sometimes nearly an inch in thickness, and encloses a considerable quantity of watery liquid, of whitish colour, which has the name of _milk_.