SOME LEADING NUT TREES. 309 



and if it lands on a tropical or subtropical shore, it takes 

 root in the sand and will bear nuts where the ocean waves 

 wash over its roots. In the United States it is alone grown 

 in southern Florida, and on its southern keys near the 

 shore-line. In Cuba the statement of De Candolle, that it 

 only grows on the seacoast, does not seem to hold good, as 

 I have seen the palms loaded with nuts on quite high land 

 several miles in the interior. The tree grows on the beach 

 sands, but it does not reach the size or load of nuts 

 observed on higher and richer land. Maturin M. Ballou 

 spent much time in Cuba looking up its resources in 1890. 

 He says of the cocoanut as grown in the interior, on the 

 west part of the island: "The cocoanut-tree grows to a 

 height of fifty feet and more, differing from the royal palm 

 by its drooping nature. At its summit is a waving tuft 

 of dark-green glossy pinnate leaves from ten to fifteen feet 

 in length, like mammoth plumes, immediately under 

 which are suspended the nuts in heavy bunches, often 

 weighing three hundred pounds." But these apparently 

 interior trees on richer soil have the breath of the warm 

 Gulf stream from the varied directions except east, and are 

 situated where they get permanent moisture at the roots. 

 But the truth is correctly stated by De Candolle, who says : 

 "Unfortunately this tree requires a warm, damp climate 

 such as exists only in the tropics or in exceptionable 

 localities just without them. Nor does it thrive at a dis- 

 tance from the sea." On thinner soil near the beach at 

 Biscayne Bay, and at other points south of Lake Worth in 

 Florida, the trees make less growth and lean from the 

 course of the prevailing winds. At Lake Worth tourists 

 often see nuts hanging within two feet of the ground, 

 while in Cuba, on richer land, we have seen the nuts hang- 

 ing down thirty feet from the ground. 



