COOK THE COCONUT PALM IN AMERICA. 273 



Florida, and is now beginning to attain considerable proportions. 

 One of the Florida coconut planters is recently reported to have sold 

 the crop of a single season for $15,000. There is also a possibility, 

 still entirely untried, that hardy varieties of the coconut palm can be 

 obtained in South America which can be cultivated in southern Cal- 

 ifornia and Arizona, or even in a few spots in southern Texas where 

 flowing artesian wells of warm water may make it possible to protect 

 small areas from frost. 



ALLEGED INTRODUCTION OF THE COCONUT PALM BY EURO- 

 PEAN COLONISTS. 



De Candolle held the opinion that the coconut palm was intro- 

 duced into South America and the West Indies by European set- 

 tlers, and that it existed in pre-Spanish America only on the Pacific 

 coast of the Panama region. The presence of even these coconuts 

 in America was supposed to represent a recent arrival by sea from 

 the Pacific islands. He says: 



The cocoa-nut abounds on the littoral of the warm regions of Asia, of the islands to 

 the south of this continent, and in analogous regions of Africa and America; but it 

 may be asserted that it dates in Brazil, the West Indies, and the west coast of Africa 

 from an introduction which took place about three centuries ago. . . . 



The inhabitants of the islands of Asia were far bolder navigators than the American 

 Indians. It is very possible that canoes from the Asiatic islands, containing a pro- 

 vision of cocoa-nuts, were thrown by tempests or false manoeuvres on to the islands or 

 the west coast of America. The converse is highly improbable. 



The area for three centuries has been much vaster in Asia than in America, and the 

 difference was yet more considerable before that epoch, for we know that the cocoa-nut 

 has not long existed in the east of tropical America. 



This supposed limitation of the range of the coconut palm in ancient 

 America, while not necessarily disproving its origin on this continent, 

 might stand in the way of any full confidence in the American nativity 

 of the species. But if it can be shown that there is adequate historical 

 evidence of the existence and wide distribution of the coconut in 

 tropical America at the time of the discovery, we gain a different idea 

 of the status of the palm among the natives of America. De Candolle 

 was able to entertain the opinion that the coconut did not exist on 

 the eastern side of the American Continent before the Spanish dis- 

 covery because he overlooked several important early references 

 and because he relied upon the theory of an early Spanish intro- 

 duction to explain the historical facts with which he was acquainted. 



Xo direct evidence of such an introduction has been produced, nor 

 does a canvass of the references to the early accounts of America 

 cited by De Candolle reveal any facts which support the assertion, 

 even indirectly. There were no coconuts in the Mediterranean region 



a De Candolle, A., Origin of Cultivated Plants, ed. 2, pp. 430, 433. (London, 1886.) 



