336 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
the south of France, where large trees exist more than 30 years old. 
Twelve degrees of frost have been endured with little or no injury.¢ 
While experimental plantings of coconuts in frost-free localities 
in southern California and Arizona are desirable to test the possibility 
of introducing the coconut into a new region, No assurance can be 
given in advance that the undertaking will be successful, either to 
the extent of affording a new agricultural industry or to the lesser 
extent of introducing a new ornamental palm. The fact that the 
coconut is not limited to maritime conditions, as usually supposed, 
but is adapted to dry climates, simply means that previous ideas of 
the habits of the palm should not be allowed to stand in the way of 
further study of its possibilities. 
The only assurances that can now be given are that the climatic 
factors do not appear likely to exclude the palm from an extra- 
tropical distribution in frost-free interior localities with adequate 
exposure to sunlight, and that the heat requirement is not as great 
as in the case of the date palm. Whether coconuts can be made to 
thrive in any locality in the United States outside of Florida can 
only be determined by experiment. Other factors that are not to 
be foreseen may interfere with or entirely preclude success. Locusts 
or other insects or diseases may destroy the palms, as they have 
done in other parts of the world, or the soil conditions may prove 
unsuited in some manner that can not be corrected. It is. also 
possible that the palms may not tolerate cold weather, even above 
the freezing point. Some tropical plants are permanently injured 
by cold, even when the freezing temperatures are not reached, but 
this susceptibility is not conspicuous among the palms and is not 
very likely to appear in the coconut, in view of what we already 
know of its ability to exist in dry and elevated regions subject. to 
marked changes of temperature, 
To undertake the commercial planting of coconuts in California 
before experiments have shown its feasibility would be altogether 
unwarranted, Such a caution may appear to some readers as alto- 
gether superfluous, but not to those who are familiar with the losses 
that have come from the premature expansion of rubber culture 
and other tropical industries in recent years. It is quite possible 
that coconut palms will be found to grow well in localities where 
they are able to produce little or no fruit. This would preclude 
commercial cultivation, but if coconut palms will grow in California, 
even without producing fruit, their introduction will be abundantly 
repaid, for they are one of the most beautiful objects in the whole 
vegetable kingdom and would be “a very great grace’’ in California 
as in the “citie of Porto Rico.” 
« André, K., Revue Horticole, vol. 74, p. 8. (1902.) 
