124 



PHILIPPINE AGRICULTURE 



After the first few years, the stem does not increase in 

 thickness, but it grows in height as long as it lives. It 

 usually grows straight upward ; but if one side receives 



more light than the other, 

 it bends toward the side 

 most lighted. . 



Leaves. An old, strong 

 tree has twenty-five to 

 thirty-five leaves, each 5 

 to 7 meters long, with 

 about eighty pairs of leaf- 

 lets. The leaflets are 

 folded downward. There 

 is a hinge along each side 

 ' of the midrib. When the 

 leaf transpires faster than 

 it can get water, the hinge 

 causes the edges to fall 

 and fold nearer together, 

 and this checks the loss of 

 water. Each leaf lives a 

 Like the stem, the leaves 



FIG. 88. Coconut trees on the sea-shore, Pa- 

 cific coast of Tayabas province, showing the 

 enlarged base and numerous roots 



little less than two years, 

 are very tough. 



Flowers and Fruit. The flowers are borne in dense 

 panicles, one panicle in the axil of each leaf. The 

 flowers do not open until more than six months after the 

 first appearance of the leaf in whose axil they grow. 

 The staminate and pistillate flowers are distinct; and in 

 each panicle the staminate flowers wither and fall off 



