94 . NUT CULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



being double the size of the Yellow Pine, are quite often collected by the natives who 

 live in the immediate vicinity; bat these two species are not reckoned as staple prod- 

 ucts. Mature cones elongated, 5 to 6 inches, often 8 to 10 inches long, and half as 

 wide when expanded." 



TORREY PINE (Pinus torreyana Parry., pi. 16, fig. 10). "This lone, expiring- 

 species is too limited to be well known; but the seeds are very large (shells about 

 as thick as the shells of hazelnuts), the largest known. Ovate, subcylindrical, one 

 half to three-fourths of an inch long, wings short, very thick at base, and incasing 

 the seed like the setting of a jewel. The trees are usually loaded with cones. Mature 

 cones broadly ovate, 4 to 6 inches long and very heavy, 1 to 2 pounds, with broad, 

 thick scales, armed with short, quadrangular, pyramidal, scarcely pointed prickles. 

 No Indian tribes are now in the vicinity, hence the trees are little utilized. A few 

 small trees, buffeted, often prostrated by ocean winds on the bluffs at Delmar, San 

 Diego County; and a smaller number, about a hundred, detected more recently on the 

 east or shore end of Santa llosa Island, 120 miles north of the other locality." 



GRAY-LEAF PINE (Pinus sabiniana Doug., pi. 16, fig. 11). "Specimens collected 

 in Tehachipe Mountains. Quite abundant on the borders of the great valley of Call- 

 forinia and dotting the foothills. Formerly much used by the natives, and called in one 

 locality 'Digger pine,' but the Indians nowadays use the white man's flour in prefer- 

 ence. Seeds large, subcylindrical, one-half to three-fourths inch long, black, with very 

 thick, hard shell and a delicious kernel. Wings very short, the thick base half envel- 

 oping the seed with a broad rim. Mature cones broadly ovate, 4 to 6 inches long." 



BIG-CONE PINE (Pinus coulteri Don., pi. 16, fig. 12). "The trees are quite local. 

 Though produced by the largest, heaviest cone known, the seeds are not very large; 

 about one-half an inch long and one-half as wide, but with broad wings one and one- 

 half inches long. Mature cones elongated, elliptical, of matchless size and weight; 

 15 to 20 inches long, half as thick, and weighing 5 to 8 pounds." 



THE COCOANUT. 



(Coco* nucifera Linn.) 



Cocos is from Coco, the Portuguese word for monkey, the base of the nut resem- 

 bling a monkey's head; nucifera from two Latin words, nux, micis, nut, and ferre, to 

 bear nut bearing. 



The cocophut was known to the inhabitants of Ceylon 161 B. C., and its milk was 

 then used in the making of cement. Sir James Emerson Tennent says: 1 "This date 

 is thought to be the earliest mention made of the cocoa palm in Ceylon, though a 

 time is indicated when it was unknown in that island, by a statue carved in a rock 

 east of Galle, which tradition says is the monument to the Kustia Raja, an Indian 

 prince whose claim to remembrance is that he first taught the Singalese the use of 

 the cocoanut." The tree grows quite straight to the height of 40 to 50 feet and 

 about 1 foot in diameter, generally leaning away from prevailing winds. It is without 

 branches, but has about a dozen leaves springing from the top, each leaf being from 

 10 to 20 feet long. The leaves are pinnate, composed of a strong midrib with leaflets 

 on either side nearly 3 feet wide at the base and tapering to a point. Five or six 

 leaves are formed every year, the old ones dropping off and leaving horizontal scars 

 that ornament the trunk. The new leaf is inclosed in a tough, fibrous sheath, which 

 is often used as a strainer, or even for cjothing. Flowers appear in the axils of the 

 leaves and are inclosed in a thick, tough spathe which opens on the under side and 

 soon drops off; when this is freshly opened the clusters of small three-parted flowers 

 have a beautiful milk-white appearance, though they soon become yellow. Both 

 staminate and pistillate flowers are on spikes growing from a common footstalk. 



1 Ceylon, vol. 1, page 4361. 



