276 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



based on information collected from the explorers and the reports 

 they sent home. Sloane says : 



Martyr says this Fruit was brought to the American Isles, but, that many were found 

 naturally in Peru, it may be doubted whether they were not brought thither by the 

 natural Currents of the Sea. a 



Sloane does not tell us where such a statement is to be found in 

 Martyr's writings, nor does De Candolle appear to have considered 

 it necessary to verify the reference for himself. A search through 

 the English version of Martyr's Decades used by Sloane might have 

 lessened confidence in the idea that the palm was introduced by the 

 Spaniards. 



The name "coco" was not mentioned by Martyr in his accounts 

 of America, though there were many references to palms, which the 

 early English translator turned into "date trees," the date being the 

 only palm well known in Europe at the time. Even in the last cen- 

 tury we find English travelers referring to Brazilian species of Cocos 

 as "dates," as in the following instance: 



Still we were skirting palm-trees, among which the grass grew to a great height. 

 One of the things we had from the Indians yesterday was the date-palm. Its fruit 

 grows in clusters, looking like a colossal bunch of grapes; the outer shell is thin, and 

 contains a sweet, yellowish substance, of which the Indians are very fond, covering a 

 nut like a filbert, with the flavour of the coconut, containing the kernel from which 

 the oil is extracted. & 



In addition to the fact that both are fruits of palms, there is a 

 notable external resemblance between dates and coconuts as they 

 hang in large clusters among the bases of the leaves. The only strik- 

 ing difference is that of size, which is commonly disregarded in popu- 

 lar comparisons. Indeed, Martyr himself was familar with the idea 

 that the products of America often exceeded those of Europe in size. c 



a Sloane, Hans, A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, etc., vol. 2, p. 9. (1725.) 

 & Mulhall, M. G., Between the Amazon and Andes, pp. 183, 184. (London, 1881.) 

 c Martyr did not understand that the Indian corn of America was a different 

 plant from the cereals of Europe, and hence found it difficult to credit the report 

 that the wheat in Santo Domingo produced ears thicker than a man's arm. 

 . . . The lyke encrease commeth of wheate if it be sowen vppon the mountaynes 

 where the colde is of sume strength: but not in the playnes, by reason of to much 

 fatnes and rankenes of the grownde. It is in maner incredible to heare, that an eare 

 of wheate shuld bee bygger then a mans arme in the brawne, and more then a spanne 

 in length, bearynge also more then a thousande graynes as they all confesse with one 

 voyce, and ernestly affirme the same with othes. Yet they say the bread of the 

 Ilande (cauled) Cazabbi made of the roote of Iucca, to bee more holsome, because it is 

 of easyer digestion, and is cultured with lesse labour and greater increase. The 

 residue of the tyme which they spende not in settynge and plantynge, they bestowe 

 in gatheringe of golde. — Martire, Pietro, The Decades of the Newe Worlde or West 

 India (1516), trans, by Richard Eden (1553), in Arber, E., The First Three English 

 Books on America, p. 168. (Birmingham, 1885.) 



