COOK—-THE COCONUT PALM IN AMERICA, 299 
The conclusions of those who have considered the subject from the 
tropical standpoint and with the advantage of actual contact with 
tropical conditions, have been canvassed in the previous paper, but 
a few of their statements may be repeated. Pickering testifies: 
... C. nucifera throughout the Pacific occurs only on those islands to wnich it has 
been carried by the natives, a fact well known to traders; was observed by myself only 
under cultivation throughout the islands of the Pacific and the Malayan Archipelago.¢ 
... So invariably is its presence attributable to human operations that it has 
become a guide to the traders in seeking for natives. 
Notwithstanding that the fruit is well adapted for floating uninjured over a wide 
expanse, I have never met with an instance of a cocoa palm having spontaneously 
extended itself from island to island. 
ther testimonies are the foilowing: 
... Itis to be emphasized that all coconuts are planted; the idea of a wild palm 
being as strange in Funaiutias that of a wild peach might bein England... . Idoubt 
whether, despite popular opinion to the contrary, a wild coconut palm is to be found 
throughout the breadth of the Pacific. ¢ 
. . . From repeated observation, [in the Solomon group] I am convinced that the 
coco-nut palms will rarely grow, and certainly will not bear fruit, unless attended to 
and kept clear of overgrowing trees.¢ 
... The Cingalese have a saying that Cocoa-nut trees do not thrive unless ‘‘ you 
walk and talk among them,” indicating that trees thrive the best when carefully 
attended to. ¢ 
THE COCONUT PALM NOT TOLERANT OF SHADE. 
When the traveler who lands for the first time on a tropical coast 
looks up along the shore and sees the coconut palms leaning out 
toward the strand or actually overhanging the water, he is at once 
reminded of and confirmed in the idea of maritime distribution. (PI. 
three pale-green leaves in the air, while, originating in the same soft white sponge 
which now completely fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots pushing away the stoppers 
which close two holes in an opposite direction, penetrate the shell, and strike verti- 
cally into the ground. <A day or two more, and the shell and husk, which in the last 
and germinating stage of the nut are so hard that a knife will scarcely make any 
impression, spontaneously burst by some force within; and, henceforth, the hardy 
young plant thrives apace, and needing no culture, pruning, or attention of any sort, 
rapidly arrives at maturity.’’—Simmonds, op. cit., p. 555. 
The rapidity of germination and growth are entirely misconceived; only one leaf 
is produced at a time, and the first leaves are simple, not three-parted; roots do not 
come out of the holes, but grow from the young plant; the shell does not burst; the 
young palms do not thrive without care. 
« Pickering, Charles, Chronological History of Plants, p. 428. (Boston, 1879.) 
b Pickering, Charles, The Races of Men, pp. 54, 323. (London, 1851.) 
¢ Hedley, Memoir III, Australian Museum, Sydney, p. 22. (1896.) 
@ Woodford, A Naturalist Among the Head Hunters, p. i94. (London, 1890.) 
éSeemann, B., Popular History of the Palms and their Allies, p. 158. (London, 
1856.) 
