Coconut 



147 



subulate. The fruit is large, smooth, 3-angled, often 3 dm. long, with a thick, 

 fibrous husk enclosing the oblong bony hollow nut, which has 3 orifices near the 

 end and is lined with the sweet white endosperm and filled with a sweet limpid 

 juice, much prized as a dehcious drink. 



This palm is the most important member of its family, at least from an econom- 

 ical standpoint, its useful applications being remarkably numerous. The ripe 

 fruit is the popular coconut of commerce, used as a staple food in all the tropics 

 and as a delicacy in temperate regions, to which the preserved dried flesh in the 

 form of desiccated coconut is also sent and consumed in large quantities as a basis 



Fig. no. Coconut, Key West, Florida. 



for various confections. The "milk" of the ripe fruit is very nutritious as well 

 as delicious, while the water}' contents of the younger fruit is one of the most 

 wholesome and delicious drinks obtainable in the tropics. The dried flesh, freed 

 of the hard covering, is a staple commercial product under the name of copra, 

 from which a thick bland oil is expressed. In the tropics coconut oil is an impor- 

 tant article of food, it is also the base for fine soaps; the residuum, after the oil is 

 expressed, is a valuable food for cattle. The fibrous husk, under the name of 

 coir fiber, obtained from the unripe fruit, is the basis of an important industry- 

 which furnishes a very important coarse fiber, largely used in the manufacture of 



