76 [FT. n 



CHAPTER Y. 



COCONUTS AND OTHER PALMS. 



Coconuts. The coconut 1 palm, Cocos nucifera, is the most 

 widely cultivated plant in the tropics, but, except in Ceylon, 

 the Philippine Islands, South India, Trinidad and parts of 

 Polynesia, not as a rule upon a large scale for export of the 

 products, but in the mixed cultivation of the peasants. There 

 is probably no single plant capable of so large a variety of uses, 

 whether locally or for export. So old and so universal is the 

 cultivation in the tropics, that even yet the original native 

 country of the palm is uncertain, though opinion seems to 

 favour the western islands of Polynesia from which it has been 

 carried by the currents of the ocean to Malaya, Ceylon, India, 

 Africa, etc. The fruit being enclosed in a thick fibrous coating, 

 can be carried by the sea for a very long time without losing 

 the power of germination, and hence this palm is one of the 

 earliest things to appear on any newly formed land, such as a 

 coral reef, in the tropics. 



While in a small way the cultivation is important in 

 America and in Africa, it is to Ceylon and other eastern lands 

 that one must look for large and important plantations. The 

 palm flourishes best in the damper coastal regions, but is also 

 cultivated inland, and up to elevations of 2500 feet or over. 

 The cultivation is mainly in native hands, though in recent 

 years many Europeans ' have invested in what is sometimes 

 called the consols of planting. The palm is the most common 



1 I adopt the correct spelling of this word. It is much to be regretted that 

 the spelling cocoanut should have crept in, as it leads to much confusion with 

 cocoa or cacao. Matters are further complicated by the existence of coca, 

 cocoes, coco-plum, coco-yam, etc. 



