HISTORY OF THE SEA COCOA-NDT. 927 



opinion that the Maldive Islands formed once part of a continent i 

 which hy an inundation of the sea disappeared, those islands alone 

 beinfr loft : the palms, however, that produced those nuts, were 

 buried underirround and the nuts themselves became petrified in the 

 way we find them now. Whether those palms belong to the same 

 genus as our nut is difficult to say, as nobody up to now was able to 

 see either the leaves or the stem of that plant. Only the nuts are 

 washed ashore, sometimes in pairs, sometimes single ; but nobody is 

 allowed to collect them on penalty of death, because everything that 

 is carried ashore belontrs to the kino;. This circumstance has added a 

 good deal to the value of these nuts. The pulp or medulla is then 

 removed and dried in the same manner as our " Copra," till it becomes 

 hard like the one you see in the market. In this condition you might 

 easily mistake it for cheese." To this account Clusius adds the follow- 

 ing note : " I have seen vessels made of this nut in Lisbon as well as 

 in other places ; they are usually more oblong and darker than those 

 made of the common Cocoa-nut. You can even find the dried medulla 

 of the nut in the market of Lisbon ; its virtues are highly praised and 

 it is preferred to almost all other alexipharmics. For this reason it is 

 sold very dear. But you can easily gather from our author, how little 

 faith such fabulous virtues deserve." 



Whilst Garcia d'Orta was staying at Goa, a Spaniard, Cristobal da 

 Costa (Christophorus a Costa), of the medical profession, left his home 

 with the only desire to " observe and study the various plants which 

 God had created for the benefit of man in the dififerent countries and 

 provinces." On his tour he came to Goa where he met his colleague 

 Garcia d'Orta. From the personal intercourse with him as well as 

 from d'Orta's book he received most of the information which some- 

 time after was published in Spanish and translated into Latin by 

 Clusius- in the year 1572. Regarding the Sea Cocoa-nut we read in 



* That India nd the southern acd central parts of Africa were united in Meeozoic timep 

 into one preat stretch of nearlj' contiunoas dry land is now proved by overwheitning evidence, 

 taken from the Jurassic fossils as well as from the Cn taceons depositB. The great 

 revolniions in physical geography, wtiich took place towards the end of the Cretaceous and 

 during early Tertiary time^, resulted in the break-up of the old eontin.nt, ynd were 

 follow d by the rise of the Himalasan range. It would be highly interesting to trace the 

 origin of the opinion espresed by Garcia d'Orta. Is it not possible that within historic 

 'iinee tho*! islands were staped imo their present form ? 



» " Aromatuir et m> dicamentorum in Orientuli India nascentiutn historia, plnr mniD Incis 

 adfer' ns lis qua a Dociore Garcia de Orta in hoc tit-n re srripta sunt auctor Christophoro 

 a Goats, Medico et Cheirurpo " in *• Caroli Clusii Ilsoticorum Libii Decern." (ItiOo.) 

 SO 



