348 KirKwoop AND GIES: CHEMICAL STUDIES 
Cocoanut Prarts.—Within the nut there is occasionally found 
a small stony substance of a bluish white color, a kind of vege- 
table bezoar, called in India ca/appa, which is eagerly purchased 
by the Chinese, who ascribe great virtues to it as a sort of amulet 
to preserve them from diseases. The cause of its formation in the 
nut is unknown. 
According to Harley and Harley * these pearls, like those of 
molluscan origin, appear to consist almost entirely of calcium 
carbonate, with water and organic matter in smaller proportion. 
Riedel, quoted by Harley and Harley, states that in 1886, while 
in North Celebes, he found a pearl in the endosperm of the cocoa- 
nut. One such a pearl was pear-shaped in form and 28 mm. long: 
We are greatly indebted to Dr. D. Morris, Imperial Commis- 
sioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, for the following very 
interesting quotation from a letter to Dr. MacDougal : 
“More than two hundred years ago Rumph, an eminent bot- 
anist in the East, sent as a present to the Grand Duke of Tuscany 
a ring in which a cocoanut pearl had been set. Further, Rumph 
himself described cocoanut pearls in his great work with consid- 
erable minuteness and gave illustrations of two of them. One 
was perfectly round, the other was oval or egg-shaped. * Mii x 
Travelers in the. Philippine Islands have heard of cocoanut pearls, 
but seldom or ever have seen them. The natives, it is said, keeP 
“cocoanut stones” as charms against disease and evil spirits. 
The rajahs, we were told, highly prized them and wore them 03 
precious stones. It was only a few years ago that real cocoanut 
pearls were at last brought to England. One is now at the Mu- 
seum at the Royal Gardens at Kew, brought by Dr. Hickson. 
It is almost egg-shaped, perfectly white, and composed almost en- 
tirely of carbonate of lime. It has, in fact, a somewhat similar 
composition to the pearl of the oyster, and yet there is little doubt 
it is a purely vegetable product.” + ; 
a 
* Harley and Harley: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 43° 464- 
1887-88. 
t ‘ Besides these cocoanut pearls,’’ quoting further from Dr. Morris’ letter 10: Die 
MacDougal, ‘* Rumph describes what he calls * Melate’ pearls taken from the flowers 
of a Jasmine ; and a *Champake’ pearl taken from the flower of a Michelia. if we 
had not already seen the pearl of the cocoanut it would have been impossible to b 
that there were such things as Jasmine and Michelia pearls * * * Of their compos : 
mode of occurrence and true nature we have yet to learn.’’ See the article by Harley 
and Harley referred to above. 
elieve 
jtion, 
