324 CONTKIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



Soconusco district of southern Mexico. Instead of being oval or 

 spherical, these nuts are strongly flattened on the very broad apex, 

 so that the shape would be described in botanical terms as broadly 

 obconic or turbinate. All of the nuts observed in the markets of 

 Tapachula at the time of our visit in the spring of 1902 seemed to be 

 of this type. They are also of distinctly larger size than those, 

 for example, of Costa Rica. This fact may have caused them to be 

 preferred for planting, but there is no probability that the peculiar 

 shape has been secured by selection. The variety doubtless originated 

 as a mutation or " sport," like those of the Malay region. 



It is also reasonable to believe that the coconut was established 

 on the Pacific coast of Mexico by human agency, as well as on the 

 islands of the Pacific. There were Indian tribes of the Aztec family 

 scattered along the coast at least as far south as the Nicoya Penin- 

 sula of Costa Rica, where many objects believed by archaeologists 

 to have been made in Mexico have been dug from prehistoric graves. 

 The claim of some writers that the Indians of the Pacific coast of 

 America are not navigators finds little support in fact, for all along 

 between Alaska and Terra del Fuego there have been, even in the 

 post-Columbian epoch, tribes with maritime skill and seafaring 

 instincts. The Pacific coast of America from Mexico to Peru a is 

 dotted at frequent intervals with human remains which mark former 

 centers of ancient cultural activity, many of them already decayed 

 and forgotten before the Spaniards came, as the early explorers 

 themselves had occasion to reflect. b 



ADAPTATIONS OF THE COCONUT FOR GERMINATION. 



For nearly two centuries the coconut has been described in books 

 of travel and natural history, and even in formal scientific works, as 

 an example of a plant widely distributed in nature through the agency 

 of ocean currents. Thus in a recent text-book: 



The Cocoanut seems especially designed for floating, inasmuch as its outer fibrous 

 husk forms a veritable life-preserver; it has been known to float hundreds of miles on 

 the surface of the ocean. On reaching a strand, it readily germinates; in this way 

 coral and volcanic islands in the South Seas are populated with Cocoanut palms. c 



a The Indians of the islands off the coast of California, now extinct, are supposed to 

 have been allied to the maritime tribes of British Columbia. The eminent American 

 ethnologist Cushing maintained that a direct connection existed between the Peru- 

 vians and the ancient people who built the extensive irrigation canals of Arizona. 



b In ancient times these Indians were not natives of Quinbaya, but they invaded the 

 country many times, killing the inhabitants, who could not have been few, judging 

 from the remains of their works, for all the dense canebrakes seem once to have been 

 peopled and tilled, as well as the mountainous parts, where there are trees as big 

 around as two bullocks. From these facts- 1 conjecture that a very long period of 

 time has elapsed since these Indians first peopled the Indies. — Cieza de Leon, p. 89. 

 (See footnote above, p. 287.) 



c Osterhout, W. J. V., Experiments with Plants, p. 325. (New York, 1905.) 



