522 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



Sing. : Pot-tel. 



Burm. : On -si. 



Oochin-chin. : Oay-dua. 



Description. — Trnnk 40-80 feet high, straight or curved, marked 

 with ring-like leaf scars, which are not prominent, rising from an 

 inclined swollen base which is surrounded by a mass of rootlets. 

 Leave 6-15 feet long; leaflets equidistant, 2-3 feet long, linear- 

 lanceolate, coriaceous ; petioles 3-5 feet long, stc>ut. 



Spadix 4-6 feet long, stout, androgynous, simply panicled. 

 Lower spathes 2-3 feet long, oblong, hard, splitting lengthwise. 

 Male flowers unsymmetric ; sepals small, valvate ; petals ^ inch 

 long, oblong, acute, valvate. Female flowers larger than the male, 

 1 inch long, globose, supported by broad bracteoles. Sepals 1 inch 

 in diameter, round, concave, imbricate. Petals shorter than the 

 sepals, convolute, with imbricate tips. 



Fruit 8-12 inches long, 3-gonously obovoid or subgiobose, green 

 or yellowish ; albumen lining the endocarp, the cavity large, 

 filled with a sweet somewhat milky fluid, known as cocoa-nut milk. 



In germinating the inner end of the embryo, an extension of the 

 cotyledon, is developed into a special absorbing organ (the " apple " ). 

 From the outer end of the embryo, situated below one of the 

 openings at the apex of the shell, grow the plumule and the roots. 

 The specialized cotyledon at first attacks and proceeds to digest 

 the part of the kernel adjacent to the embrj'o. It continxies to 

 grow until it fills the entire cavity of the nut, the kernel of which 

 becomes soft. The roots push forth and enter the soil before the 

 kernel is totally absorbed, and finally the union between the j'oung 

 plant and the cotyledon is broken and it begins an independent 

 existence. The function performed by the husk is protective. It 

 is of low specific gravity and keeps the nut afloat if it falls into the 

 sea, so that the nut may be transported from shore to shore by 

 ocean currents. 



Hab.— The original home of the Coco-nut tree and the history of 

 its spread are not yet sufficiently known. The Sanscrit name indi- 

 cates its ancient cultivation in India ; it was, however, not known 

 to classic writers, and it seems certain that it was introduced by the 

 Portuguese into Western Africa and the Cape Verde Islands, and 

 that it did not exist in the West Indies, Guiana, nor Brazil at the time 

 of the discovery of America. It has been supposed to be indigenous 

 in the Indian Archipelago and on the Nicobar and Coco islands of 

 the Bay of Bengal — and this would explain its early cultivation on 

 the coasts of India and Ceylon. But all the other species of the 

 genus Gocos are confined to South America, and those that have been 

 said to be indigenous in Mexico, seem to belong to the genus Attalea. 

 Considerations of botanical geographj- Avould, therefore, j)oint to the 

 west coast of Central America as its home. Martins, indeed, consi- 



