27(3 ORIGIN AND DISTRIBUTION" OF THE COCOA PALM. 



groups to the southward before.it was carried around the end of the 

 Mala}^ peninsula into the Indian Ocean. The cocoanut could probably 

 not be carried inland into the humid Malay peninsula, and a people 

 migrating thither from the islands would have been compelled to leave 

 it behind on the coast. 



OCEAN CURRENTS INEFFECTIVE. 



Owing to its great weight and size, the cocoanut can be held to have 

 reached Asia in only three ways — by means of a formerty different 

 distribution of land masses, by ocean currents, or by human agency. 

 There is little reason to carry the question far back in geologic time, 

 because the strict localization of the genera and higher groups of 

 palms gives no evidence of contact between the Asiatic and American 

 floras since the differentiation of the principal groups took place. 

 The theory of transfer by ocean currents has received much attention 

 and far greater credence than the facts seem to warrant. While it is 

 difficult to set a limit to the possibilities of such a means of distribu- 

 tion, the probabilities are certainly not extensive. To prove that the 

 cocoanut is adapted especially for maritime distribution, it would be 

 required to show that water is the normal, or at least a very frequent, 

 medium of dissemination, and that on this account selection has 

 favored the development of thicker husks. But it is obvious that 

 few cocoanuts ever reach the water, and that the thick husk is neces- 

 sary to permit the heavy fruit to drop with safetj 7 from tall trees, and, 

 as all nuts must make this journey, such a selection is real and univer- 

 sal. Moreover, the protection is even yet not adequate, so that it is 

 customary in the East Indies to pick by hand and let down by ropes 

 the nuts intended for planting, those which are allowed to fall being- 

 injured, frequently to the extent of failing to germinate or of fur- 

 nishing only weakly and debilitated seedlings which may never attain 

 to normal development or produce full-grown, fertile fruits. Even 

 when no mechanical injury to the nut proper is apparent, the power 

 of germination may be destroyed by decay, which sets in where the 

 husk has been bruised. To insure healthy and vigorous seedlings the 

 nuts must be fully ripe, after which planting can not be safely delayed 

 more than a month. If kept too moist the nuts rot, but if too dry 

 they soon lose the power of germination. If allowed to lie in the 

 sun and become overheated, they are also killed, while under too much 

 shade the seedlings will make little or no growth. 



There is, indeed, little in the way of observed fact to support the 

 poetic theory of the cocoanut palm dropping its fruit into the sea to 

 float away to barren islands and prepare them for human habitation. 

 This time-honored fancy contains several other practical difficulties. 

 Thus, in the first place, the cocoanut palm seldom grows upon the 

 immediate strand overhanging the water, or even in reach of ordinary 



