278 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



appear that there are any pine trees in the Veragua district of Panama, 

 to which this statement pertains, or that there are any pines with 

 edible nuts in the whole Central American region. There are many 

 pine forests in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, but they are not 

 known to extend farther south than the latitude of Matagalpa, Nicara- 

 gua. The botanical explorations of Professor Pittier in Costa Rica 

 and Panama afford conclusive evidence that there are no pines in 

 those countries. Professor Pittier also states that ineffectual attempts 

 have been made to introduce pines into the central plateau of Costa 

 Rica. 



The word translated by Eden as "date trees" simply means palms 

 (palmarum) , and might possibly refer to the fruits of one of the 

 Attalea palms or to those of Elaeis melanococca, though neither of 

 these could be expected to have received much consideration from 

 the standpoint of utility as food, or to havs been planted by the 

 Indians. The coconut, though hardly distinguished for sourness (ob 

 austeritatem) , would certainly be a disappointment as a food in com- 

 parison with the sweet fruits of the true date. Coconuts are very 

 seldom eaten in the Tropics in a raw state except by children; as an 

 exclusive diet they were considered very unwholesome, especially by 

 the weakened, half-starved men of the Spanish expeditions. 



OVIEDO 'S ACCOUNT OF THE COCONUT. 



The source of Eden's information regarding the American " dates " 

 need not be sought further than in the extensive accounts by Oviedo, 

 also translated by Eden and published in the same book with Martyr's 

 "Decades. " a There can be no possible doubt that Oviedo was 

 acquainted with the coconut palm. He described it at length in a 

 two-page chapter of his quaint Spanish, which Eden rendered into 

 contemporary English as follows: 



There is bothe in the firme lande and the Ilandes a certeyne tree cauled Cocus, 

 beinge a kynd of date trees and hauynge theyr leaues of the self same greatnesse as 

 haue the date trees which beare dates, but dyffer much in their growynge. For the 

 leaues of this Cocus grow owte of the trunkes of the tree as doo the fyngers owt of the 

 hande, wreathynge them selues one within an other and so spreadynge abrode. These 

 trees are hygh : and a ' /ounde in great plentie in the coaste of the sea of Sur, in the 

 prouince of Cacique Cfiiman. These date trees brynge furth a frute after this sorte. 

 Beinge altogyther vnite as it groweth on the tree, it is of greater circumference then 

 the heade of a man. . . . Whyle this Cocus is yet freshe and newly taken from the 

 tree, they vse not to eate of the sayde carnofitie and frute: But fyrste beatynge it 



a Oviedo's original publication was an abridgment entitled, Oviedo dela natural hys- 

 toria de las Indias. (Toledo, 1526.) This was translated by Richard Eden under 

 the title, The natural history of the West Indies, and published in Arber, E., the 

 first three English books on America. (Birmingham, 1885.) The complete work was 

 first issued at Madrid in 1851. (See footnote, p. 295.) Books 1-19 and 10 chapters of 

 book 50 were published in Seville, 1535, as La historia general delas Indias. 



