22 
fruit usually assumes ; a specimen of this may be seen in the collec- 
tions in the museum building. Long before the discovery of the 
tree itself, its fruit was found floating in the Indian Ocean, and 
from this circumstance it derived its old name of Coca de Mer, 
The unknown origin of these odd fruits gave rise to most as- 
tounding tales. One of these was to the effect that the fruit was 
not a product of the land but of the sea itself, and that it was 
produced by a tree growing in the ocean and similar to the true 
cocoanut; this was said to be visible upon the coast of Sumatra, 
but immediately disappeared did any one dive down to investi- 
gate. This mystery of its origin and its scarcity made its fruit 
appear to the native mind most valuable and to possess wonder- 
ful properties of healing, and in one land a royal edict made pun- 
ishment by death the penalty for its possession by any but the 
king himself. The discovery in 1743, in the Seychelles Islands, 
of the palm which bore the fruit, put a stop to all such tales, 
and its mystery gone the fruit soon lost all its reputed healing 
properties and became an object of mere curiosity, or a convenient 
article to be manufactured into necessary apparatus, such as 
receptacles for carrying water, dishes, plates and oe household 
utensils. The fruit is often 18 inches long and sometimes weighs 
40 or 50 pounds, and requires about ten years to reach maturity. 
The tree attains a height of 80 to go feet. 
GrorGE V. Nasu. 
NOTES, NEWS AND COMMENT. 
The total amount of precipitation in the Garden during De- 
cember, 1902, amounted to 7.57. Maximum temperatures of 51° 
on the 2d, 38° on the rith, 54° on the 21st, and 65° on the 22d, 
were observed : also minima of 13° on the 6th, 4.5° on the gth, 
7° on the rgth, 21.5° on the 17th, and 8° on the 2gth. 
The temperature of the soil at a depth of a foot as registered 
by the Hallock thermograph ranged from 28° on the Ist to 32° 
on the 16th and to 38° on the 30th. 
