88 The Philippine Journal of Science 1917 
on newly emergent beaches, such as those of Krakatau, or on the 
oceanic islands on which grow only a few species of plants born 
from drift fruits, and on which there exists no animal likely 
to be hurtful. 
But if one holds as correct Cook’s assertion, that Cocos nuci- 
fera cannot have developed its actual qualities without man’s 
protection except in America, we must admit that the cradle of 
mankind was America; for Cook is right when he says “that 
the useful cultivated plants offer the best record of man’s primi- 
tive existence.” If this Cocos cannot live without man’s pro- 
tection and if man must necessarily have been its distributor, 
we must also admit, either that man was the creator of the species 
Cocos nucifera, or that man appeared on earth at least contem- 
poraneously with Cocos nucifera. The fact that the coconut 
palm has not established itself in Australia without help, although 
its nuts must certainly have been carried to its shores, can be 
understood when we consider that Australia is one of those re- 
gions where the conditions are precisely such that the coconut 
could not establish itself without man’s assistance; such condi- 
tions are the predominant vegetation; the too great dryness, 
especially during the period of germination; and the presence of 
animals destructive to nuts and to young and to full-grown plants. 
Cook finds another argument for maintaining that the coconut 
palm cannot have disseminated itself in the asserted fact that 
its fruits, falling from such a height, must surely be injured by 
the cracking of the kernel, which would have the effect of re- 
ducing “materially the chances of successful germination.” But 
even if this were true (and in the case of some very tall palms 
it may perhaps happen), this must also have been the case in 
the birthplace of the coconut palm where there was no man 
ready, as he says, “to let the fruits down carefully to avoid 
injury” to them. Setting aside the small probability of such 
peril, it must be remembered that the coconut palm begins to 
fructify when only a few meters high; therefore, there is no 
danger whatever that its fruits will be injured by their fall 
or that there will not remain a sufficient number of them to 
secure the reproduction of the species. 
THE CORAL ISLANDS ARE THE LOCALITY BEST ADAPTED TO THE 
SPONTANEOUS REPRODUCTION OF THE COCONUT PALM 
The manner in which the volcanic island of Krakatau (whence 
every slightest trace of vegetation was swept away by the explo- 
sion) has been restocked with plants, under our eyes, reveals 
the manner by which the coral islands can have been populated 
