194 NOTES ON THE COCOS NUCIFERA. 



the scorcliiug rays of the sim ; and yet the amount of fruit borne 

 by these differently situated trees, if of about equal age, is the 

 same in quantity and in quality. Mr. Eoss, an accurate observer, 

 who has closely studied the Cocoa Palm for many years, believes 

 that the nuts are best and contain most oil which are formed 

 when the sun is north, and rij)ened when it is south of the 

 Equator. 



Prof. Balfour, in his ' Botany,' gives thirteen to sixteen years 

 as the i^eriod, after transplanting, which must elapse before the 

 Cocoa Palm will bear fruit. Here transx^lanting is not practised 

 at all ; and I am told that the best nuts are obtained by burying 

 the newly-fallen seed some twelve to eighteen inches in the 

 ground, and from three to ten years after this (the average is about 

 five) fruit is formed, taking from eight to thirteen months to ripen. 

 In these islands ripe nuts have been gathered three years and 

 nine months after the seed fell from the parent tree. Each palm 

 throws out a spathe containing from seven to fourteen nuts every 

 month, and continues in perfect vigour for certainly much over 

 forty years, — the period allotted by Prof. Balfour to its fruit- 

 bearing powers. 



Fires are not uncommon on the islands ; and when such occurs, 

 or when any considerable space has been burned clear, the ground, 

 if rain follows, immediately brings forth an abundant crop of Cape 

 gooseberry ( PJujsalis penivicDw) and a species of Brassica [B.juncea ?), 

 though among the cocoa-nut trees there is none of the Phijsalis to 

 be seen, and but very few mustard plants. 



[The mode of ramification in Palms above described by Mr. 

 Forbes (now on his way to Celebes) by the production of persistent 

 leaf-bearing branches in place of flower-panicles, must be of very 

 rare occurrence, if previously recorded. Dr. Pulney Andy has 

 described and figured (Trans. Lin. Soc, xxvi., p. 661, fig. 1) a 

 somewhat similar transformation, where numerous branches of 

 the spadix were metamorphosed into small leafy tufts, but he 

 expressly notes that these quickly withered and fell away. The 

 branched Palmyra and Cocoa-nut Palms figured in the i^late 

 (t. 51) attached to Dr. Pulney Andy's paper are cases of bifurca- 

 tion of the terminal' bud (analogous to the normal condition in 

 HypJicene) and have been more frequently observed. — Ed. Journ. 

 Bot.] 



DiiscRii'TioN OF I'j.ATK 202.— Di'awii lioiii sketches by Mr. A. C. Koss. — 

 1. View of branched Cocoa-nut Pahn, northern aspect. 2. The same, seen 

 from the opposite side. •'}. A vouug Cocoa-nut Palm with seven stems (see 

 text). 



