EuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 13 



tion I am couvinced that cocoauut-palrns will rarely grow, 

 and certainly will not bear fruit, unless attended to and kept 

 clear of overgrowing trees."" Amongst the Cingalese there is 

 a saying that the cocoanut-palm will not grow out of the 

 sound of the sea, or of human voices. Moresby informs us 

 that, although the cocoanut is extremely plentiful along the 

 whole of the south coast of New Guinea, and on some of the 

 islands in Torres Straits, it does not occur anywhere along 

 the coast of north or east tropical Australia. This cannot be 

 due to anything either in the soil or climate, for trees planted 

 by Europeans at Cardwell were doing well when Moresby 

 made his observation;! we must therefore conclude that the 

 spontaneous extension of the cocoanut is not so common as is 

 generally supposed, and that its wide dispersion throughout 

 the whole of the equatorial islands is mainly artificial. This 

 view is further strengthened by the fact that the exten- 

 sion of the species in these seas exactly coincides with 

 the extension of the art of agriculture. Eecognising this, 

 De CandoUe has suggested that the presence of the cocoa- 

 palm on the American coast might be due to the accidental 

 arrival of some Polynesian natives having some of the fruit 

 with them ; but, considering the wide expanse of ocean these 

 people would have to cross, it seems to me that this " acci- 

 dental " hypothesis only removes a difficulty by substituting an 

 improbability. 



Here, again, the presence of the kumara in Polynesia 

 suggests an explanation. The cocoanut may have been traiis- 

 ported in the same manner as the kumara, and as probably 

 the banana also was. It is evident, however, if this was the 

 case, this removal must have taken place at a period far more 

 remote than that of the other species. When the ancient 

 monuments of Polynesia come under consideration it will be 

 seen that this is no difficulty. 



I have already mentioned that the botanical evidence is 

 altogether in favour of the American origin of the cocoanut- 

 palm, a gi'eater number of varieties occurring in the Malay 

 Archipelago. In the case of the breadfruit, most of the varie- 

 ties are found in eastern Polynesia, the original stock belong- 

 ing to the western islands. We cannot, therefore, arrive at any 

 positive conclusion from the distribution of varieties. If the 

 cocoanut-palm was transported from Polynesia to America as 

 a cultivated plant, it would probably be found in cultivation on 

 that continent instead of in a wild state, the ancient inhabi- 

 tants having made little use of the fruit. Throughout Poly- 



* " A Naturalist amongst the Head-hunters, Solomon Islands." 

 C. M. Woodford. 



t " Discoveries in New Guinea and Polynesia." Captain Moresby. 



