COCOS PALMS 623 
COCOS PALMS 
Natural Order PALM&. Genus Cocos 
Cocos (Portuguese, coco, monkey: in allusion to the end of the nut of 
C. nucifera resembling a monkey’s face). A genus of beautiful stove 
Palms, with plume-like leaves and trunks of considerable height. The 
flowers are similar to those of the genera already described, but the 
sexes are separate and borne on different trees. The fruit is either egg- 
shaped or elliptical, consisting of a bony shell wrapped in a very thick 
fibrous husk, and containing a single seed. The cocoanut is a familiar 
example. They are natives of the Tropical Regions of America: one, 
however, C. nucifera, being found in Asia and Africa. 
Cocos nucifera, the Cocoanut Palm, was introduced to 
England in 1690 from the East Indies. Although growing 
freely along the coasts of most tropical countries, its native home is not 
known; but it is believed to have spread originally from the West coast 
of Central America. It does not succeed in this country so weil as 
several other species of the genus. It is probably the most generally 
useful of all plants, and supplies the natives of some of the countries 
where it grows with almost all they require. It is said to have as many 
uses as there are days in the year. C. plumosa, a Brazilian species, 
was introduced in 1825. C. schizophylla, also from Brazil, dates from 
1846. ©. weddeliana, a South American species, is of more recent in- 
troduction, and is one of the most graceful of all Palms. The Cocoanut 
was fruited in the gardens of the Duke of Northumberland at Syon, 
Brentford, about forty years ago. 
Cocos pLuMosA (feathery). Stem stout and column- 
ne ike. 40 to 50 feet high. Leaves, like enormous ostrich 
plumes, from 3 to 15 feet long, pinnate, the pinne clustered, about an 
inch broad and 1 to 2 feet long, glaucous beneath. Flowers waxy- 
eas in large drooping clusters. 
C. ROMANZOFFIANA (Romanzoff’s). Leaves long, gracefully curved, 
with ae drooping pinne. Native of Brazil. 
C. SCHIZOPHYLLA (cut-leaved). Trunk 8 feet high. Leaves spreading, 
arched, 6 feet long; pinnz 2 feet long with a broad terminal lobe; leaf- 
stalk with red spines along the red margins 
C. WEDDELIANA (Weddel’s). Trunk denier clothed with black, 
netted fibres. Leaves 1 to 4 feet long, elegant and arching gracefully ; 
pinne long and slender; dark above, glaucous beneath. Plate 292; 
‘History. 
