cocos 



NUCIFERA 



Cocoanut 



Eaten as a 

 Delicacy. 



Weevil. 



Scale 

 Insects. 



Larger Enemies. 



Infected 

 Timber. 



Various 

 Fibres. 



Coir. 



THE COCOANUT PALM 



their way to the terminal bud, which they devour. The danger of such pests 

 is averted in the Straits Settlements by sprinkling the young palms with salt 

 water. Another destructive beetle is CninnArn jmim , a species of Elephant- 

 beetle which destroys both the young leaves and the terminal bud, thus rapidly 

 killing the palm. It is especially prevalent in the Malay States. On the 

 Coromandel Coast boring grubs are extracted by means of a barbed steel probe. 

 They are eaten as a delicacy by the Burmans, who are great adepts at extracting 

 them. The Rhinoceros-beetle (Ori/cte* rhinoceros, Linn.), a large black or 

 brown scarab, has been reported as especially destructive to palm trees in Madras 

 and Singapore. It damages the trees by cutting holes through the young leaf- 

 shoots. The larvae of a large weevil (Rhynciioithorun femtginrti*, Oliu.) kill 

 a great number of trees by tunnelling into the trunks. The only cure for this is 

 extraction, though the use of salt and brine is often beneficial. 



The leaves of the palm are also much injured by other insect pests and the 

 life-sap sucked from the plant. Certain of the COCCIDJE the Scale Blights 

 such as A*piili<>tit8 deHti-uftof, Signoret, and Mtactylopinti cocotlo, Maskell, are 

 especially destructive in the Laccadive Islands, and are the more dangerous 

 because it is difficult to proceed against them by ordinary methods of spraying. 

 [Cf. Maskell, in Ind. Mus. Notes, 1896, iii., 1, 66-7.] Semler says (I.e. 645) that 

 a large wasp is in the habit of making its nest in the young fruit. The only 

 remedy is the destruction of the nest. 



Larger and more easily checked enemies are rats, squirrels, flying-foxes, wild 

 cats, tree-dogs (Fui-niJojcui-ns), etc., which sometimes eat the young fruits and 

 often destroy the terminal bud. As a remedy, Semler suggests that a prepar?tion 

 of cocoanut kernel with arsenic, pulverised glass and strychnine, or the like, 

 should be put into cocoanut shells and hung in the trees. Against rats the 

 mongoose is the best protection. Nicholls recommends covering the trunk of 

 the palm with sheets of tin or galvanised iron for some twelve inches, the 

 rats being unable to climb over these. The young plants must also be protected 

 against the ravages of wild hogs, elephants, cows and porcupines. When a 

 palm has actually been killed by beetles or other pests, care should be taken 

 to destroy the whole stem by fire, as a single palm left lying or utilised for 

 posts, rails, handrails to foot-bridges, etc., may contain and send out enough of 

 the pests to destroy an entire plantation. It has accordingly been suggested that 

 the preservation by planters of infected timber as well as the non-destruction of 

 infected cocoanut-refuse should be made a statutory offence, since such nearly 

 always constitutes a public nuisance and too often involves a public disaster. 

 [Cf. Ridley, Kept, on Destruction of Gocoanuts by Beetles, Singapore, 1889 ; Tennet, 

 Ceylon, ii., 529 ; Ind. Mus. Notes, 1891, ii., 8-9 ; 1893, 175 ; 1903, v., 127 ; 

 Watt, Plague in Betel-nuts, Agri. Ledg., 1901, No. 8, 140 ; Trap. Agri., 1904. 

 xxiii., 636; Butler, Diseases of Cocoanut, in Board Rev. Madras, 1908, No. 786.] 



FIBRE. This useful plant yields various fibres or fibrous materials. 

 A delicate tomentum or cotton, found at the base of the leaf, is employed 

 as a styptic. The leaves may be used like those of other palms for many of 

 the purposes of paper. The leaflets of two or more leaves are braided into 

 mats that are used in house-construction. They are also often stripped 

 off and made into brooms, or their midribs separated and so used. 

 Again, the leaves are frequently employed as thatch, and dried they may 

 be utilised as crude torches. The half-fruit (nut with adhering pericarp) 

 is largely used as a scrubber. 



History. The important fibre, however, is of course the COIR which 

 is obtained from the thick outer wall of the fruit (or husk). This seems 

 to have been known to the early Arab writers as kanbdr, being so called. 

 for example, by Albiruni (cf. Journ. As., ser. iv., torn, viii., 266) in the 

 llth and by Ibn Batuta (Voyages, etc., Soc. Asiatique, 1858, iv., 121) 

 in the 14th centuries. Correa (Lendas da India, ii., 129-30) tells us that 

 the Governor (Alboquerque) of Cananor devoted much care (1510 A.D.) 

 to the preparation of cables and rigging of coir (cairo), of which there 

 was great abundance. Pyrard (Voy. E. Ind. (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 1887, i., 250) 

 speaks of the revenue having been paid (in 1610 A.D.) of cairo by the Mal- 



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