GERMINATING COCONUTS 
Huge Seeds Have Remarkable Adaptations for Growing in Dry Climate—Cavity 
in Nut Serves Like a Stomach or Wet Nurse for the Young Plant—The 
Coconut not Naturally a Sea-shore Palm and Not Dispersed by Sea 
O. F. Cook anp C. B. DoyLe 
Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
OCONUTS are seeds. They are 
(3 the largest of all seeds, except the 
so-called double coconuts of the 
Seychelles Islands, in the Indian 
Ocean, which are the seeds of a huge fan 
palm (Lodoicea sechellarum). The dou- 
ble coconuts are five or six times the 
size of true coconuts, weighing 30 to 40 
poundseach. No other seed approaches 
the size of a large coconut, and few 
seeds, if any, afford such interesting 
specializations to assist in the germina- 
tion and growth of the young plant. 
These special characters or adaptations 
are of the utmost interest as affording 
the best illustrations of the influence of 
selection upon the progress of evolution. 
The germinating coconut has been 
studied in detail by several authors from 
the structural and chemical standpoints, 
but the remarkable internal growth of 
the embryo has not been adequately 
described and illustrated. Several va- 
rieties of coconuts sent from Panama 
were received in a germinating condi- 
tion, so that it was possible to get pho- 
tographs of the stages of germination 
as well as of the varietal differences. 
THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION BY SEA 
Appreciation of the specialized char- 
acters of the coconut has been hindered 
by the theory of maritime distribution. 
The coconut has been described very 
often in books of travel and natural 
history, and even in formal scientific 
works, as a plant that has been widely 
distributed in nature through the agency 
of ocean currents. It has always been 
considered a native of tropical sea- 
coasts, specially equipped for floating 
to other coasts and islands. It is true 
that the coconut is provided with a 
148 
tough fibrous husk from one to two 
inches thick, which enables it to remain 
afloat for a long time. It is also pro- 
vided with a coating of wax on the 
surface of the husk, as though to render 
the nut impervious to water. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that writers who 
approach the subject from the stand- 
point of structure alone should continue 
to rely on this apparently unimpeach- 
able proof of the habits of the plant in 
nature. 
There is no direct evidence, however, 
to support this theory, for the same type 
of husk is found in the seeds of many 
other related species of palms which do 
not grow on sea-coasts, and are not 
distributed by water. That the husk 
of the coconut is thicker than that of 
the other related species, merely con- 
forms with its larger size and the greater 
danger of breakage when falling to the 
ground. The waxy coating of the husk 
is not a unique character, for it is found 
in nearly the whole group of palms, the 
small fruits of many inland species 
being more waxy than the coconut. 
NEAR RELATIVES ARE AMERICAN 
All of the palms that are closely 
related to the coconut are natives of 
America, most of them being found in 
Brazil. It is true that the coconut 
palm is most abundant and attains its 
greatest economic importance in the 
islands of the Pacific, but there is noth- 
ing to show that the habits of the palm 
would enable it to exist permanently, or 
in a truly wild state, in a littoral or 
oceanic environment. Although this 
idea of the coconut as a native of the 
Pacific islands appears in most of the 
text-books and general works of refer- 
