COCO \ M I 



COCOON 



320 



to 15 fee t in length. Tin- short racemes bear from 

 five to lift'-i'M ur more nuts; mid ten or twelve of 

 these racemes, in different stages, may be ween at 

 once on a tree, iiloiit ri^htv or one linmlreil nuts 

 liriiiX its ordinury annual produce; tlie best trees 

 aid to produce two hundred. The tree bears 

 fruit in from seven to eight years from the time of 

 planting, and continue-, productive for seventy or 



Cocoa-nut Palm ( Cocos nucifera ) : 



a, portion of young spatlie, with inclosed inflorescence ; 6, 

 branch of spadix ; c, smaller portion enlarged, showing a 

 female flower below and male flower above ; d, cocoa-nut 

 e, husk cut open, showing hard endocarp, at /opened to show 

 the single seed. 



eighty years, the fruit being gathered four or five 

 times annually. This affords to the inhabitants of 

 many tropical coasts and islands great part of their 

 food ; it is not only eaten as it comes from the tree, 

 both ripe and unripe, being filled in a young state 

 with a pleasant milky fluid, but it is also prepared 

 in a variety of ways. The structure of the fruit will 

 be understood by reference to the article PALM. 



The kernel or the cocoa-nut contains more than 

 70 per cent, of a fixed oil called Cocoa-nut Oil, or 

 Cocoa-nut Butter, which, however, must not be 

 confounded with the fixed oil of the chocolate, also 

 known as cocoa butter. The oil is itself an import- 

 ant article of commerce, being much employed in 

 Europe, particularly for the manufacture of stearine 

 candles ; and also of a marine soap, which forms a 

 lather with sea-water. In tropical countries, and 

 particularly in the East, it is much used as a lamp 

 oil and as an unguent. It is also employed as an 

 article of food, so long as it remains free from 

 rancidity, to which, however, it is very liable. It 

 has been recommended as a substitute for lard in 

 the preparation of ointments, and in this con- 

 nection its property of readily taking up a large 

 quantity of water has given it a certain value. It 

 may be used instead of cod-liver oil in consump- 

 tion, for which purpose it is more palatable and 

 less likely to cause nausea. It is obtained by 

 pressure of the bruised kernel, or by boiling over 

 a slow fire, and skimming off the oil as it floats 

 on the surface. A quart, it is said, may be 

 obtained from seven or eight cocoa-nuts. It is 

 liquid in the ordinary temperatures of tropical 

 countries, but in colder climates becomes a wnite, 

 solid, butter-like oil. It becomes liquid about 74 

 (23 '3 C.). It can be separated by compression in 



the cold into a more liquid portion called '-/,,//, 

 and a more solid part termed cocotttearin, or cocorin, 

 which is of complex constitution, and contaiiiM at 

 least six fatty :i--i-l -. 



The root of the cocoa-nut palm po**e8es narcotic 

 properties, and is- sometimes chewed instead of the 

 areca-nut. The terminal bud (Palm Cabbage) in 

 esteemed a delicacy, and trees are often cut down 

 for the wake, of it; the central part of the young 

 stem is also succulent and eatable. The xacchar- 

 ine sap (toddy) of tin-, ax of some other palm-. i 

 an esteemed leverage in tropical countries, either 

 in the state in which it is obtained from the tree, 

 or after fermentation, which takes place in a few 

 hours; and from the fermented sap (palm wine) 

 a spirituous liquor (arrack) is obtained by distilla- 

 tion. The juice is often also in the East Indies 

 boiled down to yield sugar (jaggery). A variety of 

 arrack is also distilled from the fermented milk. 



The dried leaves of the cocoa-nut palm are much 

 used for thatch, and for many other purposes, as 

 the making of mats, screens, baskets, &c., by 

 plaiting the leaflets. The midribs of the leaves 

 supply the natives of tropical coasts with oare. 

 The wood of the lower part of the well-grown stem 

 is very hard, takes a beautiful polish, is employed 

 for a great variety of purposes, and is imported into 

 Britain for ornamental joinery, under tne name of 

 Porcupine Wood. The fibrous tissue of the less 

 mature stems is made into cordage. A kind of 

 gum is also frequently obtained from the stem. By 

 far the most important fibrous product of the 

 cocoa-nut tree is Coir (q.v.), the fibre of the husk 

 of the imperfectly ripened nut. The husk of the 

 ripened nut is used for fuel, and also, when cut 

 across, for polishing furniture, scrubbing floors, &c. 



The shell of the cocoa-nut is made into cups, 

 goblets, ladles, &c., and is often polished or carved. 

 Within the nut there is occasionally found a small 

 stony substance, of a bluish-white colour, ' a sort of 

 vegetable bezoar,' called in India Calappa, to which 

 the Chinese ascribe great virtues. There are about 

 30 species of the genus, mostly South American, 

 of which C. bntyracea and C. coronata may be 

 mentioned as specially important sources of oil and 

 starch respectively. The Double Cocoa-nut of the 

 Seychelles Islands is the fruit of a totally different 

 palm, Lodoicea Seychellarum. See Coco DE M KK. 



Cocoa-nut Beetle (Batocera rubus), a large 

 Longicorn beetle, the larvre of which are very 

 destructive in cocoa-nut plantations, eating their 

 way in all directions in the stems of the younger 

 trees. They are destitute of feet, large and pulpy, 

 and of repulsive aspect ; but are esteemed a luxury 

 by the coolies of the East. They resemble the 

 (jrntjru worms of South America. 



Coco de Mer (also called Sea or Maldive 

 Double Cocoa-nut) is the fruit of the Lodoicea 

 Seychellanun palm. Its double kernel has long had 

 an extraordinary value over a large area in the 

 East. As a sovereign antidote to poison, and long 

 known only from specimens thrown up on the 

 Maldive coasts, it was supposed to grow on a sub- 

 marine tree, and had other fables attached to it. 

 The tree on which it grows is peculiar to some of 

 the Seychelles Islands, reaches a height of 100 feet, 

 and has very large fern-like leaves. 



Cocoon, the silken sheath spun by the larvie of 

 many insects in passing into the pupa or resting 

 stage. The cocoon proper is due to the secretion 

 of special spinning glands, situated ^anteriorly or 

 posteriorly, out larval hairs and foreign objects of 

 many kinds may also be utilised. The amount of 

 secretion, the arrangement of the threads, and the 

 completeness of the covering vary very widely ; nor 

 is the presence of any cocoon whatever essential 

 to the pupa stage. Tne most typical and pe~fect 



