124 PALM TREES 



Genus Cocos, Linnceas. 



Female flowers less plentiful than the males, and 

 situated below them in the same spadix. Spathe 

 double, outer small, interior woody. Flowers with 

 bracts. Male flowers with six stamens and a rudi- 

 mentary pistil. Female flowers with three stigmas. 



The stems of this genus are lofty, generally cylin- 

 drical and smooth. The leaves are large and regularly 

 pinnate. The spadix is simply branched, and the fruit 

 is ovate oblong, and with an outer fibrous covering. 



Eighteen species of Cocos are known, seventeen 

 being natives of South America, principally of Brazil, 

 while one only, the well-known Cocoa-nut, is a native 

 of the Old World, though it is now universally culti- 

 vated in every part of the tropics. Few species of the 

 genus are found in the Amazon district. They appear 

 to prefer drier and more elevated countries, some of 

 them reaching an altitude of near 8000 feet above 

 the sea. 



