The shells of the cocoa-nut, when fully ripe, are of a tolerable thickness, and great hardness; they are cut transversely, scraped, polished, and mounted on silver, being edged also with the same metal, and are preserved as goblets, more for curiosity than utility; but the shell is also used for cups, (elegantly carved,) lamps, ladles, skimmers, spoons, &c.; they are used by the Polynesians, as well as other natives, entire, for containing their water, having two holes on the summit. The interior of the nut is extracted without breaking the shell, by filling it with salt-water, after which it is buried for some time in the sand, when the inside pulp becomes decayed, and the shell is then well washed out. The largest nuts are chosen for the purpose, and are often seen highly polished, and of a fine black colour. The cups of the natives are usually made of sections of the cocoa-nut in that stage of ripeness, when they are denominated by the Tahitans _Omutu_; they are then scraped so thin as to be nearly transparent, and are of a light-brown colour. The shells will make good lamp-black, and, reduced to charcoal and pulverized, also an excellent dentifrice. The flowers are insignificant when the magnitude of the tree is considered, and are inclosed in a thick, tough spathe, which, when either opened artificially, or when seen just expanding naturally, have a beautiful milk-white appearance. The Tahitans call the flower _Tiari_, a name applied generally to all flowers; and the spathe is denominated _Pa tiari_; _Pa_ signifying a shell or any thing hard, sometimes applied to the shell of the cocoa-nut; and the spathe is thus considered the shell of the flowers. The first appearance of these flowers on a tree of moderate elevation (when they are well seen) has an elegant effect—the cluster erect, drooping, and delicately white. The taste of the flowers is most powerfully astringent, and in Ceylon is used medicinally in various debilitating diseases, more particularly that distressing malady in tropical climates—gonorrhœa. The mode in which it is administered is the expressed juice of the flower mixed with new milk, and taken in small quantities not exceeding a wine-glass full, but at regular periods, affords almost immediate temporary relief, and, if persevered in, effectual cure. It is from these flower spathes, before the flowers have yet expanded, that the delicious beverage, known to Europeans as toddy or palm-wine is made;[131] it is called by the Singalese _Ra_, and the Hindoo Portuguese _Soura_, but is unknown to the natives of Polynesia, although at some of the islands Europeans, who have visited those parts of India where they had seen the process of collecting it, had commenced instructing the natives, who were delighted to have a beverage possessing the stimulus of their favourite rum.