262 ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE COCOA PALM. 
detail; although ‘*coco-nuts” are mentioned, the context shows that 
they were the seeds of Theobroma, and not of Cocos, and although 
wine is said to have been made from the juice squeezed from the pith 
of a palm, the tree is described as having ‘* such prickles on the trunk 
as the thorn.” It may have been Acrocomiéa vinifera, but certainly 
was not the cocoa palm. 
But these references to palms are suggestive as showing the extent 
of interest taken in the subject during the lifetime of Columbus, and 
they thus afford further proof, if any were needed, against a very 
early introduction by way of Spain. Moreover, unless Columbus 
himself brought over the cocoanut, it is extremely improbable that an 
introduction by the Spaniards could have been made early enough to 
have deceived Oviedo, Cieza de Leon, and Acosta, even if we admit, 
for the sake of argument, the most incredible diligence on the part of 
the natives in disseminating the species. Under exceptionally favor- 
able conditions the cocoanut may begin bearing in five or six years, 
though often it does not till considerably later, and the first nuts are 
usually small and infertile. Ten or fifteen years generally elapse 
before the tree reaches effective maturity, so that it becomes doubtful 
whether even the cocoanut palms which Acosta saw at San Juan de 
Puerto Rico were the result of European planting at that place, since, 
if introduced by the Spaniards, the trees would have been .compara- 
tively young and still the objects of curiosity and remark. The facts 
of their history would still have been fresh in the minds of living men 
and of exactly the nature to be told to a visitor interested in natural 
objects and plant introduction. 
And behind these improbabilities is a more fundamental reason for 
disbelief in any such extended efforts at introduction by the early 
Spanish explorers, namely, the fact that the cocoanut is of no very. 
considerable importance in continental regions, or even in large 
islands. It is only on the coral reefs and atolls of the Pacific, where 
there are often no other means of securing fresh water, that the cocoa- 
nut is of really vital importance. Elsewhere it is a luxury rather 
than a necessity, as far as the question of food is concerned, although 
its secondary uses are in many places very numerous and highly differ- 
entiated, so that it is now well-nigh indispensable to some millions of 
the human species. But in America and Africa, at least, the cocoanut 
is not a product of primary value, except in communities dependent 
upon its sale as a commercial product. There are other woods much 
easier to work, other fibers much easier to extract, and other cala- 
bashes’ much easier to cut and otherwise more suitable for drinking 
called ‘calabash trees,”’ 
species of Crescentia, furnish hard-shelled fruits readily available for domestic pur- 
poses, while the ancient Peruvians cultivated the bottle gourd (Lagenaria) on a large 
scale. Moreover, pottery was manufactured all the way from Mexico to Peru and 
elsewhere in tropical America. 
‘In the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America the s¢ 
