348 KiRKWooD AND GiES I Chemical Studies 



CocoANUT Pearls. — 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 calappa, 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. * * * 

 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 as 

 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." f 



* 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 to Dr. 

 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 believe 

 that there were such things as Jasmine and Michelia pearls * * * Of their composition, 

 mode of occurrence and true nature we have yet to learn." See the article by Harley 

 and Harlev referred to above. 



