This fibrous net-work must also act as a security to the huge fronds, against the violence of the winds; and a valuable precaution, by which the sudden fall of the branch is prevented, which otherwise might endanger the lives of those passing under the trees; it is not uncommon to see the dead branches hanging from the trees perfectly dry, attached to the trunk only by this tenacious substance, and even then it requires no little muscular exertion to bring them down. When a large bunch of the fruit is seen pending from, apparently, so fragile a stalk, it seems as if it were an impossibility that it could support such a cluster; from twelve to twenty large nuts, besides several small, unproductive nuts, may be seen on each bunch, and in good situations the tree will admit of the fruit being gathered four or five times in the course of the year. The state in which the fruit is most used as an article of food, both meat and drink, is the green or young cocoa-nut, (Oua of the Tahitans, Koroomba of the Singalese,) at which time it yields an abundance of a delicious, cooling beverage, to which, sometimes, Madeira wine, brandy, &c. is added. The water, beautifully clear, has a sweetness, with a slight degree of astringency which renders it very agreeable; this liquid has been erroneously considered by most persons as injurious, producing a predisposition to dropsical complaints, and has been considered among the Tahitans one of the exciting causes of that prevalent disease amongst them termed _féfé_ or _elephantiasis_; but I have recommended and adopted this cooling beverage during my frequent and long visits to intertropical countries, and have always found it the most cooling and refreshing beverage during my botanical and other excursions; but when an immoderate quantity is drunk, I have known a slight degree of strangury produced by it. The ladies, however, who may fear taking it internally, are informed that to the water of the green cocoa-nut is ascribed that inestimable property, to them, of clearing the face of all wrinkles and imperfections whatever, and imparting to it the rosy tints of youthful days!