ORIGIN OF THE NAME COCO. 267 



dez refers, whether correctly or not, to Strabo, 1 which indicates that 

 he -would not have avoided mention of, any other Greek writers, while 

 Acosta prefaces his discussion of the cocoanut by the following remark: 



And it is an admirable thing to see so many different formes, tastes, and effects 

 unknowne, whereof we did never hear speake before the discoverie of the Indies. 

 And whereof Plinie himselfe, Dioscorides and Theophrastus (yea, the most curious), 

 had no knowledge, notwithstanding all their search and dilligence. 



Moreover, it seems probable that the word coco as a lineal descend- 

 ant from the Latin coccus was in use among the Spaniards in its original 

 sense of a seed, nut, or fruit, and the seeds of Cocculus or India ber- 

 ries are still called in Spanish cocas de Levante in much the same way 

 as Hernandez referred to cochineal as "Cocco Indico." Both Oviedo 

 and Acosta used the word in a wide generic sense for the seeds of 

 several palms, and it is still applied to the seeds of smaller palms which 

 much resemble those of Cocculus and are strung for rosaries. Acosta 

 also refers to the seeds of a palm of Chili (Jubaea) as coquillos (modern 

 coquitos), and describes the large fruits of Bertholletia (Brazil nut) or 

 other Lecythidaceae as "another kinde of cocos " containing almonds. 

 We have thus apparently another case like those of Mimosa and Cereus, 2 

 where ordinary Spanish words adopted into botanical nomenclature 

 have been tortured at great length to fit the most improbable theories 

 of classical Latin, Greek, or even more ancient derivations. But 

 though already possessed by the Spaniards, the word coco was by no 

 means new to America. Eighteen of the names of plants in the " His- 

 toria" of Hernandez begin with coco and twenty-eight with caca, which 

 seem to have been used interchangeably. Thus Dampier and Cockburn 

 frequently refer to cacao (Theobroma) as "coco," "coco-nuts," and 

 "cocoa." The difficulty which we still have in attempting to restrict 

 cacao to Theobroma, coca to Erythroxylon, cocoa to Cocos, and coco to 

 Colocasia may be but a legacy from the popularity of these syllables 

 in the plant names of American aboriginal tribes. However curious 

 such a coincidence between the Spanish and American word coco may 

 seem to us, it appears to have produced no such effect upon Hernandez, 

 even when explaining the name of the plant cocoyatic 3 on the ground 

 that the leaves were similar to those of palms, and, although not 



1 Hernandez's chapter on the cocoanut opens with the following caption and first 

 sentence : 



"De Nucis Indicae, et Cocci vocati arbore. Nux Inclica, quam valgus Indorum Maron, 

 Strabo vero (ut quida volut) Palmam vocat, a Mexicensibus Coyolli, a Lusitanis ob 

 oculos quosdam Cercopitheci similes Coccum, a vulgo vero Persarum, et Arabum 

 nuncupatur Hard." 



2 "Los cardones que los cripstianos Hainan cirios . . ." Oviedo, vol. 1, p. 311. 



3 ' ' Cocoyatic, seu herba Palmae simili. — The herb cocoyatic, which the people of Mieho- 

 acan call Xahuique, has the leaves of Porrum or of a small palm, whence the name. " 

 "Nova Plantarum, Animalium et mineralium Mexicanorum." Hernandez, p. 144 

 (Romae, 1651). 



3508— Vol. 7, No. 2—01 2 



