284 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



alone is something like a Sedge or the leafe of a wilde Lilly. Under this bush which 

 is the head of the tree, doe the Coker-nuts grow, some fortie on a tree round about the 

 Bole, some yard downward from where the branches breake out. These trees are a 

 very great grace to the Citie of Puerto Rico, [San Juan] and very many there were 

 found in it. a 



Samuel Champlain, the subsequent explorer of Canada, also visited 

 Porto Rico in 1599, shortly after the English expedition had sailed 

 away from the island. The Spanish expedition that Champlain 

 accompanied also "remained at Porto Rico about a month," and 

 came to the same conclusions as the English chaplain regarding the 

 island and its palms. 



The said Island of Porto-rico is pretty agreeable, although it is a little mountainous, 

 as the following figure shows. It is filled with quantities of fine trees, such as cedars, 

 palms, firs, palmettoes, and another kind of tree which is called sombrade. . . .& 



We might remain in doubt of what palms were intended if it were 

 not for a later passage in which Champlain clearly distinguishes 

 between the true palm or coconut and the cabbage or royal palms 

 which he calls "palmiste," but not "palm." 



As I have spoken of the palm, although it is a tree sufficiently common, I will here 

 represent it. It is one of the highest and straightest trees that can be seen; its fruit, 

 which is called " Indian nut," grows quite on the top of the tree, and is as large as 

 the head of a man ; and there is a thick green bark on the said nut, which bark being 

 removed, the nut is found, about the size of two fists; that which is inside is very 

 good to eat, and has the taste of young walnuts; there comes from it a water, which 

 serves as a cosmetic for the ladies. c 



FIRST ACCOUNT OF THE COCONUT IN BRAZIL. 



De Candolle knew from the writings of Piso and Marcgrave that 

 the coconut existed in Brazil at an early date, but he did not admit 

 that the palm was present before the European settlements were 

 made. He treated his evidence regarding Brazil in the same way 

 as that relating to Porto Rico, to support his assumption of an intro- 

 duction by Europeans. But if we go back to the original of the 

 earliest statement we find nothing of this implication that the coco- 

 nuts had been imported by the colonists. We learn only that the 

 palms were cultivated in Brazil, as everywhere else. De Candolle's 

 inference from such statements is that Piso and Marcgrave "seem 

 to admit that the species is foreign to Brazil, without saying so 

 positively," but these authors certainly give no intimation of any 

 idea that it was introduced into Brazil by the Portuguese. On the 

 contrary, they both record the native Indian names, inaiaguacuiba 

 for the tree and inaiaguacu for the fruit, and state that the fruit of 



a Earl of Cumberland, Voyage to the West Indies, Purchas His Pilgrims, vol. 4, 

 p. 1173. (London, 1625.) 



& Champlain, Samuel, West Indies and Mexico, trans, by Alice Wilmere, p. 10. 

 (Hakluyt Society, 1859.) 



cOp. cit., p. 31. 



