HABITS OF PALMS. 283 



needed by the expanding- leaves has been completely occupied by other 

 trees and tangled vines the palm remains stunted and finally dies. 

 This disability limits the palm in nature to more open situations, where 

 unimpeded upward growth is possible through the absence of a dense 

 covering of other vegetation. Sand}- and rocky countries, exposed 

 mountain tops and shores, the banks of rivers and smaller stream-, are 

 the favorite localities of palms. It is also of interest to note that the 

 cocoanut is seldom or never associated with wild native palms, even 

 in the coast regions where it is most abundant. Moreover, contrary 

 to the statements of some writers, it does not appear that the other 

 species of Cocos and allied genera show any tendency to littoral habi- 

 tats. The African oil palm seems more nearly to resemble the cocoa- 

 nut in this respect; but it is distinctly more tolerant of forest conditions, 

 and in West Africa thrives in inland situations where the cocoanut fails 

 to make even a respectable beginning. And although seldom regularly 

 planted, the distribution of the species is obviously due in large meas- 

 ure to human agency. The seeds are scattered in large numbers in 

 the open areas about native villages and farms. The young trees are 

 spared by the natives when other vegetation is cleared away, both 

 because of their utility and because they are difficult to cut, and they 

 are able to resist fires which are fatal to most of the local plants. As 

 a result oil palms are abundant in localities where the native popula- 

 tions are sedentary and large enough to require frequent clearing of 

 the land for agricultural purposes, but rare or entirely wanting where 

 the natives move about or are so few as to permit the renewal of forest 

 conditions between the periods of agricultural use of the land. But 

 the oil palm, with its much smaller and less delicate seed, has almost 

 infinitely greater possibilities of maintaining an independent existence 

 than the cocoanut, which, with over three centuries of opportunity, 

 is not showing an} T remarked tendency to make a spontaneous exten- 

 sion of its range in West Africa. 



In fact, among all its relatives the cocoa palm seems to be peculiarly 

 ill adapted to maintain an existence at low elevations in the Tropics. 

 Young trees have comparatively few leaves, and these are large and 

 open and do not effectively shade and occupy the ground like the large 

 and densely packed leaf crowns of Elaeis or Acrocomia. The latter 

 palm is able to increase in the pasture lands of Porto Rico because of 

 the protection afforded by its large needle-like spines, while the young 



p. 290, 1890-91) numerous widely distributed littoral species which had not yet 

 become established on the island, although viable seeds were frequently cast up by 

 the sea. The inference, accordingly, seems warranted that the vegetation of these 

 islands is of relatively very recent origin, and that the cocoa palm was able to nourish 

 because it arrived in advance of the species which otherwise might prevent its 

 becoming established. , 



3508— Vol. 7, No. 2—01 — -3 



