88 Elementary Species 



tion, whether it is probable that the coconut is 

 of American or of Asiatic origin, leaving aside 

 the historic evidence which goes to prove that 

 nothing is known about the period in which its 

 dissemination from one hemisphere to another 

 took place, we will now consider only the bo- 

 tanic and geographic evidence, brought forward 

 by Cook. He states that the whole family of 

 coconut-palms, consisting of about 20 genera 

 and 200 species, are all strictly American with 

 the exception of the rather aberrant African oil- 

 palm, which has, however, an American relative 

 referred to the same genus. The coconut is 

 the sole representative of this group which is 

 connected with Asia and the Malayan region, but 

 there is no manifest reason why other members 

 of the same group could not have established 

 themselves there, and maintained an existence 

 under conditions, which are not at all unfavor- 

 able to them. The only obvious reason is the 

 assumption already made, that the distribution 

 was brought about by man, and thus only af- 

 fected the species, chosen by him for cultiva- 

 tion. That the coconut cannot have been im- 

 ported from Asia into America seems to be the 

 most obvious conclusion from the arguments 

 given. It should be briefly noted, that it was 

 known and widely distributed in tropical Amer- 

 ica at the time of the discovery of that continent 



