COCONUTS 57 



pear in a large compound spadix and, as in the case of many 

 other palms, are at first inclosed in a spathe. 



The coconut is one of the world's most important economic 

 plants. Its uses are almost innumerable. The nut yields co- 

 conut oil, copra, coconut meal, coir, desiccated coconut, co- 

 conut milk, and hard shells used in making utensils, and a fine 

 quality of charcoal. By tapping the inflorescence before the 

 spathe opens one obtains a sweet liquid called toddy, which 

 on evaporation yields a crude sugar known as jaggery. More- 

 over, the leaves yield fiber, paper-stock, material for making 

 hats, baskets, mats, thatching, etc. The cross-laced fiber at 

 the base of the leaves is used as sieves and for other pur- 

 poses by natives. The trunk of the coconut tree is used for 

 making walking sticks, for construction purposes, as dug- 

 out canoes, and in various other ways. 



Estimates of the world's total production of coconuts are 

 not very complete and are therefore somewhat unreliable. 

 Probably 50 per cent, of the total amount of coconuts pro- 

 duced is consumed in the producing countries. The world's 

 trade in copra at the present time is about 700,000 tons an- 

 nually and is increasing in amount quite rapidly. There are 

 about 3,500,000 acres in coconuts with an average of perhaps 

 loo trees per acre. Of this area about 800,000 acres are in 

 Ceylon, 500,000 in the Philippines, 500,000 in tropical South 

 America, 380,000 in British India, 370,000 in Central America, 

 270,000 in the small islands of the Pacific, 250,000 in New 

 Guinea and Straits Settlements, and smaller areas in Java, 

 Sumatra, Mauritius, Madagascar, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Re- 

 union, Siam, Cochin China, the West Indies, including Cuba, 

 Jamaica, Porto Rico, etc., and tropical America. 



The question of coconut varieties is much muddled. There 

 are, perhaps, 25 or 30 varieties. Simons used such descriptive 

 variety names as green, yellow, black, red, heavy, and globular. 

 Other writers on coconuts have used merely geographical 

 names for varieties, such as Coromandel, Malabar, Maldive, 



