COOK THE COCONUT PALM IN AMERICA. 307 



are much higher hills back of these, that appear also to contain salt; so that there seems 

 a supply here for all people and for all time. a 



We passed the salt hills of Callana Yacu, where the people of Chasuta and the 

 Indians of Ucayali and Maranon get their salt. The hills are not so high as those of 

 Pilluana. and the salt seems more mixed with red earth. It " crops out" on the banks 

 of the river, which are shelving, and rise into gentle hills as they recede, covered with 

 bushes and small trees. & 



Every year at this season the Indians of the Maranon and Ucayali make a voyage up 

 the Huallaga for their supply of salt. They travel slowly, and support themselves by 

 hunting, fishing, and robbing plantain patches on their way. c 



Unfortunately, this traveler saw no coconut palms, or at least 

 made no note of them, but a reference to coconuts in eastern Peru 

 has been pointed out to me by Professor Pittier in the surveys of the 

 Intercontinental Kailway Commission, near a place called Choros, 

 on the Maranon River, at an elevation of 765 meters. 



Vegetation existed only in narrow strips along the immediate edges of the side 

 streams entering the Maranon, and consisted mostly of coarse bushes and undergrowth. 

 At this particular point the natives had a small patch of sugar, and there were half a 

 dozen cocoanut palms. d 



Xo coconut palms are reported by the English botanist Spruce, 

 who explored the region of Tarapoto in eastern Peru and ascended the 

 humid valleys of the Pastasa and Bombonasa rivers on his way to 

 Quito. 6 



It would be reasonable to turn to these saline districts of South 

 America if any attempts were to be made to definitely ascertain the 

 original home of the coconut by finding it in a truly wild state. Such 

 a discovery is hardly to be expected, because of the probability that 

 localities suited to the spontaneous growth of coconuts would have 

 attracted human inhabitants, even in very early times. We may 

 hope, however, to find a series of local varieties or subspecies of the 

 coconut palm in these interior localities, varieties that will be more 

 hardy and vigorous than the maritime forms of the palm cultivated 

 in the humid parts of the Tropics, and more likely to thrive under 

 semitropical conditions. 



« Op. cit., pp. 154, 155. 



&Op. cit., p. 165. 



cQp. cit., p. 168. 



d Intercontinental Railway Commission Report, vol. 3, p. 16. On a previous page 

 of the same series (vol. 2, p. 61) coconut palms are noted as cultivated "in a few places" 

 in the Cauca Valley of Colombia. 



c Spruce. Richard, Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, edited by A. R. 

 Wallace, vol. 2, ch. 17. (London, 1908.; Also Kew Bulletin of Miscellaneous Infor- 

 mation, 1900, p. 216. 



