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A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 



COCOANUT. 



The Cocoanut is adapted to but 

 a very small area in this country. 

 It is a native of tropical Africa 

 and India, and recently has been 

 extensively planted, by enterpris- 

 ing fruit growers of New Jersey, on 

 the sea coast of Southern Florida. 



It is a tall tree-like palm, attain- 

 ing a height of seventy-five to one 

 hundred feet and one to two feet 

 in diameter, without branches. It 

 has a tuft of about a dozen long 

 pinnate leaves at the top, each 

 with long strong mid-rib with leaf- 

 lets on either side nearly three feet 

 wide at the base and tapering to a 

 point. The nuts are produced in 

 clusters of a dozen or more, each 

 encased in a husk of tough fibre. The nuts are utilized in a number of ways, 

 the natives using the solid part as food and the milk as drink. They also are 

 an extensive article of commerce, manufactured for many purposes. 



Germination Cocos nucifera can be germinated from fresh seeds as 

 follows: Take light, well-drained soil, and a pot ten 



to twelve inches in diameter; lay the nut on its side when planting, and cover 

 it about two-thirds only; do not remove the outer husk. The pot should be 

 plunged in bottom heat of at least seventy-five or eighty degrees. It requires 

 sometimes from two to three months to germinate. N. BUTTERBACH. 



THE COCOANUT IN FLORIDA. 



From Florists' Exchange. 



The introduction of this valuable tree in Florida, where, although very 

 abundant it is not indigenous, was due to the wreck, near Jupiter Inlet, of a 

 vessel from Bahama loaded with Cocoanuts. 



The nuts that were cast ashore were immediately planted by the residents 

 on that then sparsely populated part of the country and were found to thrive 

 wonderfully, and now in Dade county, in the southernmost part of the State, 

 having a sea front of one hundred and fifty miles, are many Cocoanut groves 

 of from one hundred to six thousand trees. 



