COOK THE COCONUT PALM IN AMEBIC A. 277 



While most of Peter Martyr's allusions to dates give no details that 

 afford a botanical identification of the palm, it must be remembered 

 that there is no other palm in the West Indian region that is more 

 similar to the date or any other that has economic importance 

 enough to bring it to the attention of men like Martyr and his English 

 translator, Eden, and lead them to reckon it among the economic 

 products of the New World. Eden seems to have been more keenly 

 interested in such matters than Martyr and occasionally adds infor- 

 mation from other sources to his translation of Martyr, as in the fol- 

 lowing instance: 



... In these Ilandes they founde no trees knowen vnto them, but pyne app[l]e 

 trees, and date trees: And those of maruelous heyght and exceding harde, by reason 

 of the greate moystnesse and fatnesse of the grounde, with contimiall and temperate 

 heate of the sonne, whiche endureth so all the hole yere. a 



There is no corresponding statement in the complete Latin text of 

 Martyr's "Decades" published at Paris in 1587, under the title "De 

 Orbe Novo." The interest of the passage is not destroyed by the 

 fact that it was an interpolation, for Eden was a contemporary of 

 Martyr and published his translation of the first three of Martyr's 

 "Decades" before the complete edition was issued. That Eden 

 understood Martyr's passages about palms to refer to the coconut can 

 hardly be doubted, and there is no reason to claim that he was mis- 

 taken in such instances as the following: 



This fortresse, he cauled saynt Dominikes towre. Into this hauen, runneth a ryuer 

 of holsome water, replenyshed with sundrye kyndes of good fysshes. They affyrme 

 this ryuer to haue many benefytes of nature. For, where so euer it runneth all thynges 

 are excedynge pleasaunte and fruitfull: hauynge on euery syde, groues of date trees, 

 and dyuers other of the Ilande frutes so plentyfully, that as they sayled alonge by the 

 shore, often tymes the branches therof laden with flowres and fruites, hunge soo ouer 

 theyr heades, that they mighte plucke them with theyr handes.^ 



The phrase "groves of date trees" is justified by Martyr's Latin 

 word palmeta, which also carries an implication that the groves were 

 artificial, and not mere forests of wild palms. In another passage 

 wild palms that grow "of themselves" are mentioned in direct con- 

 trast with those that bear "dates" larger than those of Europe, thus 

 implying again that the latter were cultivated. 



. . . They haue also abundance of nuttes of pynetrees, and great plentie of date trees, 

 whiche beare frutes bygger then the dates that are knowen to vs: but they are not apte 

 to bee eaten for theyr to much sowernes. Wylde and baren date trees, growe of them 

 selues in sundry places, the branches wherof they use for biesommes, and eate also 

 the buddes of the same. c 



The words nucibus pineis of the Latin original indicate that Martyr, 

 as well as his translator, confused pines and pineapples. It does not 



a Martire in Arber, op. cit., p. 67. & Martire in Arber, op. cit., p. 82. 



c Martire in Arber, op. cit., p. 131. 



