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HISTORY OF THE SEA COCOA-NUT [LODOICEA 

 SECIIELLARUM, Labill.). 



BY 



E. Blatter, S. J. 



There is scarcely any other palm which has been so little known 

 and was yet the most celebrated formerly as the Sea Cocoa-nut or 

 Double Cocoa-nuti. The French call it Coco de mer, Coco de Salo- 

 mon, and Coco des Maldives, and it was known to the writers of the 

 16th and 17th centuries under the names ofNux Medica and Cocos 

 Maldivicus. Before the exploration of the Seychelles in 1743, by 

 order of Mahe de la Bourdonnais, then Governor of Mauritius, the 

 nuts were only known from having been found floating on the surface 

 of the Indian Ocean, and near the Maldive Islands, whence their 

 French name was derived, and even in the time of Rumphius'^ the 

 nut was spoken of as the '' mirum miraculum naturae, quod princeps 

 est omnium marinarum rerum, quae rarae habentur".^ 



The first European who described this famous fruit was the Portu- 

 guese Garcia d'Orta (Garcia ab Horto)*. He was physician to the 

 Viceroy at Goa for about 30 years. In this capacity he found leisure 

 for private study which he sf)ent in the exploration and description of 

 the useful plants and drugs of the country. In 1563 he published the 

 results of his investigations in his " Coloquios da India '*,^ which 

 were soon translated into several modern languages, and into Latin by 



1 Other names for the same nat are: Narajile-bahri (Arab. Pers.); Jahari-narial (Bomb,); 

 I'eule-on-si (Burm.) ; Darya- ka-narel (Guz,, Hind. Dak.) ; Mudu-pal (Sing.) ; Katal-tenna 

 (Malay.); Kaddet-taynga (Tam.) ; S'lmudrapu-tenkaya (Tel.) ; Coco daa Maldivas, Coco do 

 mar (Portug.) t Meercocos, Seecocos, Doppelte Coooenasfl, Wandemuss Salomon's, Maldi- 

 visdie NasH (G^erm). 



Enmphiofl (Rumpf George Eberhard) was born at Hanau in 1627 and died in 1702. Ho 

 is called the "Plinias indicas", because be described and figured a great number of plants 

 whilst stationed in Amboina. His manuscripts and drawings have been published in 6 

 volumes under the title «' Herbarium amboinense", Amsterdam. 1741-1756. 



Of. Onrtis, Bot. Mag., Vol I. (new series) 2734—38, (1827). 



" Of. D. G. Dalgado, Claasificafao Botanica das Plantas e Drogas descriptss nos " Coloqiruos 

 da India " de Oarda d'Orta, Bombaim, 1894. 



^ 0.ircia d'Orta, Coioquioa da India, 6o«. 15G3. 



The latest Portuguese edition was published in Lisbon in 1872. 



