Fruits - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 35882 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 187.00 PALMAE Metroxylon amicarum | Entry Book Number | 97.1890 | |
| Artefact Name | Fruits | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Solomon Islands | TDWG Region | Solomon Islands | ||
| Parts Held | Fruits | Geography Description | Solomon Islands | ||
| Uses | FruitsUse: User: | TDWG use | |||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Chas Woodford | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | ||||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: Seeds are used as vegetable ivory. These nuts are an article of commerce. The natives make sago from the tree. Western Pacific No. 8 Report on the British Solomon Islands by Mr C.M. Woodford. April 1897. Ivory Nuts: These nuts are the fruit, of a palm, one of the sago yeilding palms. The species is, I believe, peculiar to the Solomons and grows wild throughout the group in inexhaustable quantity. The nuts are exported as vegetable ivory and are used for making buttons and similar small artic, les. Some years ago I made enquiries in London as to the market for these nuts and ascertained that they were known in the trade as 'Apple Nuts' and that 3 Birmingham firms ocasionally used them. I was informed that the chief objection to them was the hol, low core through the middle, and their reluctance to take a black dye. More went to Germany and Vienna than to London. About 3 years ago the price of these nuts suddenly jumped from about 3/- a ton in Sydney to 12/-, at which price a conciderable quantity, was sold and the market probably over stocked. Their value has now relapsed to about 5/- per ton in Sydney, at which figure there seems to be a good demand. The sudden inflation in value was due, so I was informed, to the demand of a Vienna firm who used, a considerable quantity for making the wheels of roller skates. I consider that there will continue to be a demand for a fair quantity at about present prices, with prehaps occasional rises. Should the demand for these nuts increase the quantity shipped, could be very largely augmented. Sago: A species of Sago palm grows wild throughout the Solomon group in inexhaustible quantities, the nuts being exported as vegetable ivory, as described under the head of exports. So far no attempt has been made to utili, se the sago contained in the pith of the tree. The natives of Shortland Island and Treasury Island understand the extraction and manufacture of sago flour and it is extensively used by them as an article of food. They wash the pith in salt water and bake, the resulting sago into cakes wrapped in leaves, frequently with the addition of pounded almonds. These cakes, as I can testify, are most excellant and sustaining food. From their portability, they are taken by the natives upon canoe voyages as they are n, ot liable to damage by salt water and, moreover, are most convenient to sit upon. In the more eastern portions of the group the natives do not understand the manufacture of sago, but in times of scarcity they bake lumps of the pith itself and they tell me, it is not unpalatable food. During my stay this year at Ugi while waiting for the return of HMS Pylades, I made experiments in the manufacture of sago. I selected a tree which was just sending up its spikes of flowers and with an axe made an incision in, the trunk from which I chipped out about a bushel of the soft white pith. This I carried to a stream and grated up the lumps of pith in a bucket of water. I poured the resulting milky water through a piece of muslin into another bucket and allowed it to s, ettle. The sago quickly settled on the bottom, when I poured off the water and removed the sago and dried it in the sun. I took the sample with me to Sydney and was told that as starch alone it would have a value of at least 8/- to 10/- per ton. Even atth, is low price it may pay to manufacture on a large scale. The trees are in a great quantity and a small apparatus for grating the pith, worked by water power, and wooden settling troughs might be erected at a very trifling cost. But apart from any commerci, al value it may possess, the natives should be taught its use as food. | ||||