696 



BOTANY 



PAKT 11 



spathe ; this bursts open and permits of the unfolding of the simple, 

 or more usually branched, inflorescence. 



The individual flowers are as a rule unisexual and constructed on the ordinary 

 monocotyledonous type; P3 + 3, A. 3 + 3, in the male flowers, and P3 + 3, G(3), 

 in the female flowers. In Cocos their distribution is monoecious. Fig. 755 repre- 



FiG, 758. — Coco-nut Palms at Hilo, Hawaii ; Pandanus oiloratissimug in front of tlie Palms. 



sents the inflorescence of Cocos nucifera, .still partly enclosed by the spathe. The 

 male flowers are crowded on the terminal branches of the inflorescence, while the 

 female flowers are considerably larger and stand single lower down. The ovary, 

 which is here composed of three united carpels, becomes, as a rule, unilocular in 

 the fruit, since only one carpel develops further. The ripe fruits (Fig. 756) are 

 borne in small numbers on each inflorescence. Each consists of a coarse, tibrous 

 exocarp, which contributes to the buoyancy of the fruit in water, and thus leads 

 to the wide distribution of tliis palm on tropical coasts, and a hard endocarp on 



