Notes and Comment. 151 



as; as turnii)S they are certainly fine, but as pears I would rather 

 not express any opinion." 



A storv of fascinating interest is the history of the coconut 

 palm in America as it has been worked out, parth- from histor- 

 ical and ethnological evidence and jiartly on botanical grounds, 

 and set forth in Contributions from the National Herbarium by 

 C). v. Cook. The first contribution of the author to this subject 

 appeared in 1901, and the results of his further studies are sum- 

 marized in tlie present ])aper {X'ol. l4, part 2). It is shown 

 that all the palms related to the coconut, comprising about 200 

 genera and 200 species, are natives of America, witli the possi- 

 ble excei)tion of a single species, the West African oil palm. The 

 structure af the fruit, contrary to a long standing assumption, 

 does not indicate adaptations for maritime distribution, but 

 rather for ])rotecting tlie embryo, assisting in germination, and 

 establishing the young plants in dry interior localities. The 

 habits of the coconut palm atTord no indication that its original 

 habitat was on the seacoast, and in fact it does not appear to 

 be able to sustain itself under littoral conditions without the 

 assistance of man. It has not been able to establish itself as 

 a wild plant on any tropical coast, but is always crowded out by 

 other vegetation after human care is withdrawn. The rela- 

 tive uniformitv of the coconuts of America is in accord with the 

 probabilitv of an origin in this hemisphere. The discovery of 

 distinct varities in isolated localities accords with the probali- 

 tics lliat llie many di\erse varities in the ^lalay region, for ex- 

 ample, have arisen like other cultivated varities, through segre- 

 gation and mutation rather than by gradual evolution and 

 natural selection. It seems therefore "that the botanical 

 n)mance of the coconut, ])rotected by its thick husk and lloated 

 from island to island in advance of human habitation, nuist go 

 ihc \\a\- of man\- other ]jleasing traditions," and that the oj^n- 

 i(,n of Pe Candolle, based on such evidence as he could obtain, 

 that the c )C.)niit palm was introduced into South America and 

 tilt- \Vc•^t Indies ])\- luiropean settlers has no warrant in historw 



Teachers will find much useful information in Farmers' 

 Bulletin 428 on Testing l-'arm Seeds in the Home and in the 

 Rural School, while Bulletin 431 of the same series, on the Pea- 



