16 COCONUT PLANTER'S MANUAL. 



Within the cells of the leaf the carbon obtained through the leaves, 

 and the mineral plant food ami water brought up by the roots, 

 meet and become changed from inorganic to organic matter. 



TIIK KLoWKR. 



The flower" of the coconut, using the term in its popular 

 Sense, first appears between a leaf and The stem, as a- spear-shaped Hat 

 structure. At this time it is completely enclosed in a continuous cover- 

 ing which is known as a spathe. It takes several weeks to attain its 

 full length, and meanwhile»it gradually becomes more cylindrical, es- 

 pecially in the tipper half. When full grown, the spathe splits longi- 

 tudinally down the side which faces outwards, and the flower opens out. 

 The splitting usually begins at a point, near the apex and takes several 

 hours to complete ; it may take more than twenty-four hours. 



To avoid confusion we must now alter our terms and use some of 

 the long words which are supposed to be the failing of the botanist. 

 The ' flower"' of the coconut is not a simple flower, but a collection of 

 flowers, and the whole collection is an '" inflorescence." The inflore- 

 scence is branched, and each branch bears numerous flowers. When 

 the inflorescence is enclosed within the spathe, the branches lie close to 

 the main axis, and the whole is so tightly packed that it is (juite im- 

 possible for any of the individual flowers to open before the spathe 

 splits. Sometimes a few of the flowers expand as soon as the spathe 

 ■splits : at other times none open until the branches of the inflorescence 

 bave spread out. 



A coconut inflorescence bears, as a rule, two kinds of flowers — male 



ami female. The male flowers are crowded together, from the rips of 

 the branches downwards, and these are the first to open. Each male 

 flower has six floral leaves, three small and three large, which spread 

 out in shir fashion. Within the>e are six stamens which provide the 

 pollen necessary for the fertilisation of the female flowers. Ami in the 

 • centre of each male flower is a short column which terminates in three 

 small teeth, at the base of each of which is a nectary.The male flowers 

 are borne in hundreds, or even thousands, on each inflorescence. 



The female flowers are situated lower down the branches of the 

 .inflorescence than the males, and there are comparatively few of them. 

 On young trees at Peradeniya, while the number of male flowers on an 

 inflox-escence runs into thousands, there are not more than about a dozen 

 female flowers and there may )>e none at all. When the inflorescence 



