It is fully twice the size, and is shaped like a kidney that is laid open.
This is called by the French the "coco de mer" from the large numbers that are found floating in the sea in the neighborhood of the islands.
The wood of the cocoa-nut tree is strong and durable; it is a dark brown, traversed by longitudinal black lines.
There are three varieties of toddy-producing palms in Ceylon; these are the cocoa-nut, the kittool and the palmyra.

The latter produces the finest quality of jaggery.

This cannot be easily distinguished from crumbled sugar-candy which it exactly resembles in flavor, The wood of the palmyra is something similar to the cocoa-nut, but it is of a superior quality, and is much used for rafters, being durable and of immense strength.
The kittool is a very sombre and peculiar palm.

Its crest very much resembles the drooping plume upon a hearse, and the foliage is a dark green with a tinge of gray.

The wood of this palm is almost black, being apparently a mass of longitudinal strips, or coarse linen of whalebone running close together from the top to the root of the tree.
This is the toughest and most pliable of all the palm-woods, and is principally used by the natives in making "pingos." These are flat bows about eight feet in length, and are used by the Cingalese for carrying loads upon the shoulder.