Tahiti, the island paradise

by Nicholas Senn

It is meat, drink and cloth to us.

RABELAIS.

Fruits of palm-tree, pleasantest to thirst

And hunger both.

MILTON.

This noble tree grows and fructifies where hard manual labor is incompatible with the climate, in islands and countries where the natives have to rely largely on the bounteous resources of nature for food and protection. The burning shores of India and the islands of the South Pacific are the natural homes of the cocoa-palm. It has a special predilection for the sandy beach of Tahiti and the innumerable atoll islands near to and far from this gem of the South Seas. The giant nuts often drop directly into the sea and are carried away by waves and currents from their native soil to strange islands, where they are cast upon the sandy shore, to sprout and prosper for the benefit of other native or visiting tribes. By this manner of dissemination, all of these islands have become encircled by a lofty colonnade of this queen of the tropics.

Beautiful isles! beneath the sunset skies

Tall silver shafted palm-trees rise between

Tall orange trees that shade

The living colonnade:

Alas! how sad, how sickening is the scene

That were ye at my side would be a paradise.

MARIA BROOKS.

The cocoa-palm (Cocos nucifera), is a native of the Indian coasts and the South Sea Islands. It belongs to a genus of palms having pinnate leaves or fronds, and male and female flowers on the same tree, the latter at the base of each spadix. It is seldom found at any considerable distance from the seacoast, except where it has been introduced by man, and generally thrives best near the very edge of the sea. In Tahiti isolated cocoa-palms are found on the lofty hilltops, projecting, with their proud crowns of pale green leaves, far above the level of the sea of the dense forest and impenetrable jungles. This transplantation from shore to the sides and summits of the foot-hills had its beginning before the discovery of the island, when the overpopulation made it necessary to provide for a more abundant food-supply. There it has prospered and multiplied since without the further aid of man, yielding its rich harvests of fruit with unfailing regularity. The frightful reduction in the number of inhabitants since the white man set his foot on the island has made this additional food-supply superfluous, as the palms within easier reach in the lowlands along the shore more than meet the present demands.

COPRA ESTABLISHMENT

The cocoa-palm is a proud but virtuous tree. Its dense cluster of delicate roots does not encroach upon the territory of other trees, but claims only a very modest circular patch of soil from which to abstract the nourishment for the unselfish, philanthropic tree. The base of the stem is wide and usually inclined, but a few feet from the ground becomes straight and cylindrical, with nearly the same diameter from base to crown. The curve of the stem is caused by the effects of the prevailing winds on the yielding, slender stem of the youthful tree, but with increasing growth and strength, it rises column-like into the air, balancing its fruit-laden massive crown in uncompromising opposition to the invisible aerial force. It is only in localities exposed to the full power of strong and persistent trade-winds that the full-grown trees lean in the same direction in obedience to the unrelenting common deforming cause. The full-grown tree is, on an average, two feet in diameter, and from sixty to one hundred feet high, with many rings marking the places of former leaves, and having, at its summit, a crown of from sixteen to twenty leaves, which generally droop, and are from twelve to twenty feet in length. These giant leaves furnish an excellent material for thatched roofs, and in case of need, a few leaves, properly placed, will make a comfortable, waterproof tent. The fruit grows in short racemes, which bear, in favorable situations, from five to fifteen nuts; and ten or twelve of these racemes, in different stages of fructification, may be seen at once on a tree, about eighty or one hundred nuts being its ordinary annual product. For the purpose of answering the requirements of primitive man, the Creator has ordained that this tree shall yield a continuous harvest from one end of the year to the other. Flowers and fruit in all stages of ripening grace the crown at all times of the year. The young cocoanut contains the delicious, cooling milk, and the soft pulp, a nourishing article of food. The mature nut is an excellent substitute for meat, as the kernel contains more than seventy per cent, of a fixed, bland, nutritious oil. The tree bears fruit in from seven to eight years from the time of planting, and its lifetime is from seventy to eighty years. Its greatest ambition during youth is to reach the clouds and equal its oldest neighbors in height. Young trees, with a stem less than four inches in diameter, rival their veteran neighbors in height, devoting their future growth to the increase in the dimension and strength of the stem, and their vital vigor to the bearing of its perennial, unfailing yield of fruit for the benefit of man and beast. The stem, when young, contains a central part which is sweet and edible, but when old, this is a mass of hard fibre. The terminal bud (palm cabbage) is esteemed a delicacy when boiled or stewed or raw in the form of a vegetable salad. The sweet sap (toddy) of the cocoa-palm, as of some other palms, is an esteemed beverage in tropic countries, either in its natural state, or after fermentation, which takes place in a few hours; and, from the fermented sap (palm wine), a strong alcoholic liquor (arrack), is obtained by distillation. The root of the cocoa-palm possesses narcotic properties. Every part of this wonderful tree is utilized by the untutored inhabitants of the tropics. The dried leaves are much used for the thatch, and for many other purposes, as the making of mats, screens, baskets, etc., by plaiting the leaflets. The strong midribs of the leaves supply the natives with oars. The wood of the lower part of the trunk is very hard, and takes a beautiful polish. The fibrous centre of old stems is made into salad. By far the most important fibrous part of the cocoa-palm is the coir, the fibre of the husk of the imperfectly ripened nut. The sun-dried husk of the ripe nut is used for fuel, and also, when cut across, for polishing furniture, scrubbing floors, etc. The shell of the nut is made into cups, goblets, ladles, etc., and these household articles are often finely polished and elaborately ornamented by carving. This, the most generous of all trees, from the time of its birth until it yields to the ravages of time, serves man in hundreds of different ways, furnishing him with food and drink, clothing, building-material, fuel, medicine, most exquisite delicacies, wine, spirits and many articles of comfort and even of luxury. What other tree but the cocoa-palm could have been in the mind of Milton when he wrote:

In heav'n the trees

Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines

Yield nectar.

GOVERNMENT WHARF–PAPEETE (Waiting for the steamer Mariposa)