The Coco Palm 7 



and West Indies are the chief producing and exporting 

 countries in order of their importance. The Philip- 

 pines, for instance, produce annually about a billion 

 nuts, 150 millions of which are consumed locally, and 

 the remainder exported. The value of the exports in 

 1913 was fifteen to twenty million dollars. A ton of 

 copra, the product of about 5,000 nuts, brought them 

 about $100. Large coco palm plantations often twenty 

 to 100,000 acres in extent, are being established in 

 various parts of the world to keep pace with the 

 demand which is increasing with the decline in the 

 supply of animal fats. The coconut supply to the 

 United States has hitherto come chiefly from the 

 American tropics, Central America, Colombia, Brazil, 

 and the West Indies. The trees in this region are 

 lately threatened by a fungus disease, the so-called 

 "bud-rot," which has gained a foot-hold. A few coco 

 palms are grown in the United States, mostly for orna- 

 mental purposes, on the east coast of Florida and along 

 the Gulf. The Museum specimen is a reconstruction 

 within the limitations of an exhibition case, of the 

 bearing portion of a South Florida palm in a well 



developed stage. 



B. E. Dahlgren. 



The exhibits in the Field Museum pertaining to the Coconut 

 palm and its economic products are to be found in the Department 

 of Botany, Halls 25 and 28 on the second floor. 



[15] 



