
- 
EA N A y 
NOTES ON TROPICAL FRUITS. 
BY W. T. BRIGHAM. 

; [Continued from page 186.] 
Cocos nucifera, Cocoanut. To attempt to give a bare 
enumeration of the qualities of this most useful of the noble 
family of Palms would be a difficult task, and there is a 
saying among Eastern nations that its attributes would fill 
& book. Although its strict territory is bounded by the 
tropics, and although a denizen of the sea-shore, it will grow 
as far north as Lucknow, in India (26° 50'N.), and is planted 
far in the interior of that peninsula; but in the one case it 
does not bear fruit, in the other is dwarfed and languishes. 
From its littoral position, its buoyant and well-protected 
nuts have been driven by winds and currents all over the 
tropical seas, and almost as soon as the atoll changes from a 
mere reef to an island, the cocoanut lands on the shores. 
The tall unbranching stem, often attaining the height of 
nnety-feet, with a diameter at the base of three feet, and at 
e crown a foot, is a most attractive object. The scars of 
the fallen leaf-stalks, more and more distinct as they ap- 
Proach the top, show clearly the way in which the stem has 
grown, starting almost at the commencement of life with its 
full diameter, and throwing off crop after crop of leaves as 
it grows in height. The leaves are usually twelve or fifteen 
m number, often fourteen feet long, and cluster around thë 
ap: As a new leaf comes out, it is covered with a brown 
fibrous sheath, which is soon split through by the sharp end 
of the leaf. At first the leaflets are folded closely upon the 
central rib, so closely that they seem a part of the smooth, 
like seinar blade. The midrib is now quite short, oye 
oa e midrib of our common palm-leaf fans, and if we 
ald ‘rumple one of these dried leaves up, We should have 
much the plan of the young cocoanut leaf. If the blades 
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