540 PALME. [ Cocos. 
3-celled (2 of the cells barren) ; style very short or none ; stigmas 3. 
Drupe ovoid-3-gonous, woody, 1-seeded, the mesocarp woody-fibrous, 
base. 
or rarely armed. Drupes usually very large. 
1. C. nucifera, L. ; Brand. For. Fl., 556.—Ong.—An evergreen 
simple-stemmed palm (40—80 + 30—60+4+3—6), all parts glabrous, 
the trunk annulate, thickened at the fibrous-rooted base ; leaves 
pinnate, 12-18 ft. long, the petiole very strong, 3 to 5 ft. long; 
pinnae linear-lanceolate, acuminate, coriaceous, but rather flaccid, 
2-3 ft. long; spadix 4 to 6 ft. long, simply panicled, the branchings 
strong but flexuose ; spathe cylindrically oblong, tapering at both 
ends, bursting longitudinally, glabrous or sometimes covered with a 
fugaceous down, 2-3 ft. long; male flowers numerous, occupying the 
upper part of the spikes or sometimes by pairs flanking the female 
flowers, rather small, yellowish ; sepals ovate, acute, hardly a line 
long; petals about 3 lin. long, oblong-lanceolate; stamens 6; ovary- 
rudiment a short 3-styled column ; female flowers usually solitary, 
large, resting on 2 broad bractlets; sepals about an inch long, 
roadly concave-orbicular, rather blunt ; petals conform, but some- 
what smaller. Ovary somewhat conical, at the base surrounded by 
an annular orange-coloured disk ; stigma sessile, slightly 3-lobed ; 
drupes more or less globular to obovoid, often somewhat 3-cornered, 
woody, brown or green, or even orange-coloured to yellow, the size 
of a child’s or man’s head, smooth, one-seeded. 
Has.—Generally cultivated all over Burma and adjacent islands, but best 
thriving in the vicinity of the sea; really wild on the Cocos Jslands and along 
a north-western coast of North Andaman.—Fl. C.S,; Fr. H.8. on 
n. 
RemarxKs.—Wood strong and durable, very fibrous, heavy, said to last for 
20 to 50 years. O/=70 pd.; good for small boats, ridge-poles, house-posts, and 
rafters, &c.; the pith furnishes a substitute for sago; each tree produces annu- 
ally from 30 to 60 cocoa-nuts ; the husk of the nuts yields fibre, while the shells 
are susceptible of a high polish and fit for fancy work, like cups, &c.; the hollow 
albumen yields the well-known cocoa-oil, while the oil-cakes furnish a valuable 
re; palm-wine, too, is obtained from the spadices ; the uses of the cocoa 
palm are too various to be all enumerated here. 
NIPA, Rumph. 
