barker THE COCO PALM 45 



its structure and marvel that every part of it is so well adapted 

 for its purpose and that the ensemble has resulted in a thing of 

 surpassing grace and beauty. 



Logically, the place to begin might well be the roots, for altho 

 its towering crest is the conspicuous part that first takes the eye, 

 the unseen roots are the mechanical support and nourishing 

 organs for the whole structure. The roots of a mature coco palm 

 may spread to a radius of twenty feet or more about the base of 

 the trunk. The palms need abundant space, then, for root 

 growth as well as for their leaves to develop without interference. 

 The roots do not penetrate deeply into the soil. Indeed, this 

 plant is a surface feeder, never sending its roots more than a 

 few feet down. They are cordlike, usually about the size of one's 

 finger in diameter, devoid of root-hairs, and are produced in 

 close-set profusion. They are preeminently absorbing organs. 

 While they afford the necessary mechanical support for the 

 towering stem and its crest of leaves far aloft, this function might, 

 probably, be achieved by any other type of roots. In this instance, 

 however, what is needed is only a set of absorbing organs that 

 can take up the nutriment dissolved in the soil waters quickly 

 and in great quantity. The coco palm loves a light soil well 

 watered from beneath. That is, there must be an abundant 

 supply of fresh water constantly furnished in the deeper layers of 

 soil, whence it can rise by capillarity to the roots above. This 

 water table must not be near the surface for the palm will not 

 tolerate a soil that lacks drainage and which is not well aerated. 

 Its ideal conditiors are found along the sandy shores that border 

 the oceans in all the tropics. 



The stem or trunk is merely a great bundle of tough, elastic 

 fibers loosely enough packed together so that they can yield to the 

 driving winds of a tempest without snapping off. Here again, 

 mechanical support of the peculiar type needed is combined in the 

 same organs with the water-conducting power. Like the trunks 

 of other monocotyledons, its trunk never can increase materially 

 in diameter as the tree grows taller and older. The diameter of a 

 palm a century old and towering 80 to 100 feet is no larger than 

 when it first raised its fronds above the earth. Hence, the need 

 that this slender stem should afford the most perfect service of 

 water transportation and strength and elasticity. This it does 



