COOK THE COCONUT PALM IN AMEEICA. 299 



The conclusions of those who have considered the subject from the 

 tropical standpoint and with the advantage of actual contact with 

 tropical conditions, have been canvassed in the previous paper, but 

 a few of their statements may be repeated. Pickering testifies: 



. . . C. nucifera throughout the Pacific occurs only on those islands to which it has 

 been carried by the natives, a fact well known to traders; was observed by myself only 

 under cultivation throughout the islands of the Pacific and the Malayan Archipelago." 



... So invariably is its presence attributable to human operations that it has 

 become a guide to the traders in seeking for natives. 



Notwithstanding that the fruit is well adapted for floating uninjured over a wide 

 expanse, I have never met with an instance of a cocoa palm having spontaneously 

 extended itself from island to island. & 



Other testimonies are the following: 



... It is to be emphasized that all coconuts are planted; the idea of a wild palm 

 being as strange in Funafuti as that of a wild peach might be in England. . . . I doubt 

 whether, despite popular opinion to the contrary, a wild coconut palm is to be found 

 throughout the breadth of the Pacific. c 



. . . From repeated observation, [in the Solomon group] I am convinced that the 

 coco-nut palms will rarely grow, and certainly will not bear fruit, unless attended to 

 and kept clear of overgrowing trees. d 



. . . The Cingalese have a saying that Cocoa-nut trees do not thrive unless "you 

 walk and talk among them," indicating that trees thrive the best when carefully 

 attended to. e 



THE. COCONUT PALM NOT TOLERANT OF SHADE. 



When the traveler who lands for the first time on a tropical coast 

 looks up along the shore and sees the coconut palms leaning out 

 toward the strand or actually overhanging the water, he is at once 

 reminded of and confirmed in the idea of maritime distribution. (PL 

 54, figs. 1 and 2.) But if he looks further into the facts he will learn 



forces itself through a minute hole in the shell, pierces the husk, and soon unfolds 

 three pale-green leaves in the air, while, originating in the same soft white sponge 

 which now completely fills the nut, a pair of fibrous roots pushing away the stoppers 

 which close two holes in an opposite direction, penetrate the shell, and strike verti- 

 cally into the ground. A day or two more, and the shell and husk, which in the last 

 and germinating stage of the nut are so hard that a knife will scarcely make any 

 impression, spontaneously burst by some force within; and, henceforth, the hardy 

 young plant thrives apace, and needing no culture, pruning, or attention of any sort, 

 rapidly arrives at maturity." — Simmonds, op. cit., p. 555. 



The rapidity of germination and growth are entirely misconceived; only one leaf 

 is produced at a time, and the first leaves are simple, not three-parted; roots do not 

 come out of the holes, but grow from the young plant; the shell does not burst; the 

 young palms do not thrive without care. 

 fl Pickering, Charles, Chronological History of Plants, p. 428. (Boston, 1879.) 

 & Pickering, Charles, The Pvaces of Men, pp. 54, 323. (London, 1851.) 

 cHedley, Memoir III, Australian Museum, Sydney, p. 22. (1896.) 



* Woodford, A Naturalist Among the Head Hunters, p. 194. (London, 1890.) 



* Seemann, B., Popular History of the Palms and their Allies, p. 158. (London, 

 1856.) 



