THE COCO DE MER. 6/ 



A RARE PALM, THE COCO DE MKR^ 



In the palm house of the conservatories of the New York 

 Botanical Garden there has recently been placed a palm bearing 

 unusually handsome, fan-shaped leaves. At the base of the plant 

 can be seen what looks to be part of two cocoanuts grown 

 together. It is the huge seed from which was raised, in the 

 propagating houses of the Garden, this specimen of the Coco de 

 Mer, or double cocoanut (Lodoicca maldivica) . 



The home of this rare palm is in the Indian Ocean, several 

 hundred miles east of Zanzibar, and about 4° south of the equator, 

 on a group of islands known as the Seychelles. Here, in 1743, 

 this palm was discovered by the French who then occupied the 

 islands. The fruits had been known for many years before, for 

 they had often been found floating in the sea around the neigh- 

 boring Maldive islands, whence they had been carried by the 

 ocean currents. But the tree itself had been a mystery, and there 

 were many tales afloat regarding it. The Malay and Chinese 

 sailors insisted that it grew on a tree deep down in the water off 

 the coast of Sumatra, but that the tree instantly disappeared 

 when they dived down to see it. The negro priests declared that 

 it grew near the island of Java, its branches protruding above 

 the water, in which a monstrous bird had its home, and from 

 which it made nightly visits to the land, killing tigers, elephants 

 and other large animals. It was further asserted that ships were 

 attracted by the waves which surrounded the tree, and that sailors 

 fell an easy prey to this ravenous bird. 



The fruits were coveted by the princes of Hindoostan as an 

 antidote against possible poisoning, and they paid large prices 

 for these mysterious safeguards to their lives. The king of the 

 Maldives turned this superstition to his own advantage, keeping 

 the fruits as his private property and disposing of them at high 

 prices. But upon the discovery of the tree which bore the fruits 

 there was no longer anything mysterious about them, and their 

 value quickly diminished. 



* These facts have been taken from an article, " The Coco de Mer, or 

 Double Cocoanut," by Mr. George V. Nash, in tlie Journal of the Nczv 

 York Botanical Garden, January, 1906. 



