I.AKI.V LlitOl'KAN KNM\\U-;|H;K 



cocos 



NUCIFERA 



Cultivation 



idi- lit) ultniiateU im-lni'-d to i hi- id. -a ..; .m ..i.cm m tin- Indian Archi- 

 [Cf. Orig. Cult. PUtntf, i ">k Im- t.ik.-n ^n-.i' De 



.irK'ument> and tlni.-. to M.mtly uphold un American origin. He n 

 i that it i-i in- tault of the palm that th.- t-urly inhahitant ., .-i America neglected 

 ; its hi.-t.'ry. l)ut similarly neither waa that neglect India's " fault. We 



d m .haling with the records that exist. Wiesner (Die Rolist. det Actual Beoorcfc. 

 nr., l!t):5, ii., 41'.t) advances no personal opinion but quotes authority 

 dual nationality (American and Asiatic.) Jumelle (Les Cult. Colon., 

 -^ It'l) U op|).i>e<l to th.> hi'licf that the nuts were brought by currents 

 India and inclines rather to the view of an Indian origin. The 

 it UHS knoun t<> < o-mus in the 6th century A.D. (who calls it argellion, a 

 derived from the Sanskrit), and John of Monte Corvino, in the 

 century, speaks of it as the " Indian Nut " (as the Arabs do to this day). 

 Yul-, Cathay and The Way Thither (ed. Hakl. Soc.), clxxvi., 213.] It 

 also seen and mentioned by Marco Polo in the 13th century, under the 

 Indian Nut." [Cf. Travels (ed. Yule), i., 102; ii., 236, 248, etc.] 



Early European 



Ku"-,\;. I--.-. 



Greek and Latin 

 Knowledge. 



In later times exhaustive and most picturesque accounts of the cocoanut 

 in India were given by Varth^ma (Travels, 1510 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 163), by 

 ot,>n (1598 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), ii., 43-51), by Baber (Memoirs, 1526, Leyden 

 Krskine, transl., 327), and by Abul Fazl (Ain-i-Akbari), etc., etc., to whose 

 unts the well-known description in Household Words, and later that of 

 irch (Indische Heil-und Nutzpflanzen, 1892, 144-56) appear to owe much, 

 question of the early European knowledge of the cocoanut is discussed 

 iinphius (Herb. Amb., 1750, i., 8), who quotes the passages of Theo- 

 tus (Hi*t. /'/., iv.. -2 (od. Sculigcr), 1044, 286) and of Pliny (Hist. Nat., xiii., 

 1 (Holland, transl.), 1601, 390) which have been supposed to refer to for*** 

 . I-H. The names given by these ancient authors are Cuciofera and Cocos, 

 but cocos might be given to any nut. A much more likely derivation is that 

 furnished by Barros (1553), Garcia de Orta and Linschoten, viz. from the 

 -h coco (macaco, Portuguese) applied to a monkey's face, an admirable 

 allusion to the three scars or markings on the base of the shell. Coca (a shell) 

 might have been the primitive suggestion of that name. [Cf. Oviedo, Hist. Gen. 

 Nat. de las Ind., 1526 (ed. 1851), i., 335; Garcia de Orta, 1563, Coll., xvi. ; 

 Acosta, Tract, de las Drogas, 1578, 107 ; Pyrard, Voy. E. Ind., 1601 (ed. Hakl. 

 Soc.), ii., 372-86, etc.) ; Clusius, Arom. Hist., 1605, i., ch. xxvi. ; Boym, Fl. Sin., 

 1656, f-f2 ; Thevenot, Travels in Levant, Indostan, etc., 1687, pt. iii., 17 ; 

 Hamilton, New Ace. E. Ind., 1727, i., 296, 306 ; Forster, PL Esc., 1786, 48 ; 

 Sprengel, Hist. Eei Herb., 1808, 103, 269; Milburn, Or. Comm. f 1813, i., 277-8; 

 Paulus JEgineta (Adams Comment.), 1847, iii., 438-9 ; Hobson-Jobson (ed. 

 Crooke), 1903, 228-9, 233-4 ; Joret, Les PI. dans UAntiq., 1904, ii., 299, 360.] 

 CULTIVATION. For seed purposes ripe nuts should be chosen from 

 is of mature growth but not too old. After being kept from four to six 

 ks, seed-nuts are planted just below the surface of the soil and about 

 it apart. Ashes and salt are freely scattered in the trenches as manure 

 as a protection against insects. The seedlings thus obtained may 

 planted out from two to six or more months later, preferably at the 

 beginning of the rains. Such is the usual method, which will be found 

 described fully in the Dictionary. In some parts of India, however, 

 the young plants are not removed from the seed-beds for one or even two 

 years. In Java and the South Sea Islands the Natives hang the nuts for 

 -n me months in the open air, under the eaves of their houses, until the Germination. 



3 and roots appear. The seedlings are then put into the positions 

 ich they are to occupy permanently. This method has been freely 

 ted by European planters owing to its great saving of labour and the 

 y facility it affords for rejecting bad or weak plants. A further method 

 leave the nuts to dry for four to six weeks and then to lay them 

 together in a damp shady place until the shoots that appear 

 from them are about 10 to 12 inches long. They are then planted in their Distance apart, 

 permanent positions, and should not stand nearer each other than from 

 26 to 30 feet apart each way. It should be remembered that for 



351 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



