100 WAS THE COCOA-NUT KNOWN TO THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS? 
from sixty to ninety feet. The doum-palm is described by Pliny (xiii. 18) under 
the name of Cuci (kuki, kovri), which is in effect the same word as kuku. But 
the fruit of the doum-palm differs from the cocoa-nut in having no juice inside 
it. In Coptic, kovre means bark; and perhaps this word may have been applied 
to the nuts of both palms, from the barky husk with which they are surrounded. 
The Copts had also the Grecized word xovkovvapia for fir-cones. Perhaps the 
Greek koxkos may be radically the same word, though the Greeks only applied 
it to much smaller fruits, or berries. We need not, then, go to the Portuguese 
for the derivation of Cocoa, seeing that the identical name was applied to 
palm-nuts by the Egyptians in the fourteenth century B.C., the date of the 
r papyrus. That the cocoa-nut was a rarity t we may see from 
there being but one tree of the kind in the old gardener’s collection, while he 
had above a hundred each of the native palms, For th n as well 
as for the peculiar and refreshing character of its fruit, it appeared to the 
poetical scribe a worthy symbol of his patron deity." ; 
This communication suggested to me the following remarks (‘ Par- 
thenon,’ No. 34) :— 
“ The cocoa-nut is now found in every part of the tropics, though 
never beyond them, chiefly on the sea-coast ; some varieties, however, 
have been met with far inland, for instance, at Merida, in Yucatan, by 
Heller; at Patna, in Bengal, by J. Hooker ; and at Concepcion del Pao,in 
South America, by Humboldt and Bonpland. But there is reason to be- 
lieve that at one time its geographical range was much more limited ; in- 
deed, we know that even in our days it has been extended to the West 
Coast of Africa; and the great puzzle has been, whence did it originally 
spring? Though having paid considerable attention to this subject, 
lam not acquainted with any theory, nor have been able to start one 
myself, which would be in unison with the part the cocoa-nut at pre- 
sent plays in different countries. It is generally assumed that the 
Isthmus of Panama, or the country thereabouts, was the cradle of this 
singular production, and that. it thence floated to Polynesia and Asia. 
The reason for this assumption is that all the other species of the genus 
Cocos belong to the New World as inland species, and that it is reason- 
able to suppose this littoral one (Cocos nucifera) also endemic to Ame- 
rica. But it should not be forgotten that there are several genera of 
palms with representatives about the native country of which there is 
no doubt, in both hemispheres: for instance, the oil palms (Elaéis) in 
Africa and America, and the common fan palms (Chamerops) in Eu- 
rope, Asia, and America. Moreover, every traveller must have observed — 
that whilst the Asiaties and Polynesians have discovered innumerable — 
