86 Elementary Species 



sure healthy and vigorous seedlings the nuts 

 must be fully ripe, after which planting cannot 

 be safely delayed for more than a few weeks. If 

 kept too moist the nuts rot. If once on the 

 shore, and allowed to lie in the sun, they become 

 overheated and are thereby destroyed; if 

 thrown in the shade of other shrubs and trees, 

 the seedlings do not find the required conditions 

 for a vigorous growth. 



Some authors have taken the fibrous rind to 

 be especially adapted to transport by sea, but if 

 this were so, this would argue that water is 

 the normal or at least the very frequent medium 

 of dissemination, which of course it is not. We 

 may claim with quite as much right that the 

 thick husk is necessary to enable the heavy 

 fruit to drop from tall trees with safety. But 

 even for this purpose the protection is not suffi- 

 cient, as the nuts often suffer from falling 

 to such a degree as to be badly injured as to 

 their germinating qualities. It is well known 

 that nuts, which are destined for propagation, 

 are as a rule not allowed to fall off, but are 

 taken from the trees with great care. 



Summing up his arguments, Cook concludes 

 that there is little in the way of known facts 

 to support the poetic theory of the coconut- 

 palm dropping its fruits into the sea to float 

 away to barren islands and prepare them for 



