COOK THE COCONUT PALM IN AMERICA. 331 



The traditional partiality of the coconut for the seabeach is fully 

 explained by two considerations, the salt and the relative absence 

 of other vegetation, which enables it to be grown with less care or to 

 persist longer without cultivation. The limestone of coral islands 

 may also afford sufficient alkaline matter for the coconut, even out 

 of reach of the sea water, as described by Wallace on the island of 

 Matabello in the Malay Archipelago. a 



Xor is the coconut confined to humid tropical climates or to low 

 elevations. Coco palms have been reported as thriving away from 

 the sea in relatively dry localities in several tropical countries. Pick- 

 ering reported them in Arabia in the district behind Muscat. Coco- 

 nuts are extensively grown in the southern part of the Hindustan 

 peninsula, and even in Bangalore, in the middle of the peninsula at 

 an altitude of 900 meters. Field cultures of coconuts are recognized 

 as acutely dependent upon particular kinds of soils. 5 



An old report of coconuts in the interior of Africa, in the region 

 of Timbuctu, was probably a mistake, as Seemann has pointed out, 

 though it does not appear improbable that they would grow there 

 if planted. Landor refers to Rye kinds of palms as seen about Tim- 

 buctu, but makes no mention of coconuts. 



a "The natives of Matabello are almost entirely occupied in making cocoa-nut oil, 

 which they sell to the Bugis and Goram traders, who carry it to Banda and Amboina. 

 The rugged coral rock seems very favorable to the growth of the cocoa-nut palm, 

 which abounds over the whole island to the very highest points, and produces fruit 

 all the year round." — The Malay Archipelago, p. 281. (London, 1889.) 



&A report "On the composition of Indian soils" contains the following statements: 



"Xo. 375-96, Black loam; lies on a gravelly substratum at a depth of 2 or 3 feet; 

 is therefore unfit for cocoa-nut. The ryots complain that the soil of this and the neigh- 

 bouring fields is not retentive enough, and needs to be more frequently watered than 

 the fields farther down the Cauvery Valley. Irrigated under the Kaling-arayan 

 channel from the Bhavani. 



"Xo. 377-96. Clay, black; more mellow and clayey than No. 375. At a depth 

 of 3 to 5 feet there is a bed of impalpable black sand; cocoa-nuts and plantains thrive 

 on this remarkably, and nowhere in the Cauvery Valley are cocoa-nuts more exten- 

 sively cultivated. The nuts are comparatively small. (The sample received could 

 not be called either black or clayey; it consisted of a dark-brown loamy soil.)" — 

 Leather, J. W., The Agricultural Ledger, No. 2, p. 8. (1898.) 



C "A few date palms, the gorboy-musukuru, the gorboy-homo, with long green thorns 

 and a bitter fruit much enjoyed by the children, and a number of dwarf palms are 

 to be found, as well as the forked palm, tlneb(Me.' n — Landor, A. H. S., Across Widest 

 Africa, vol. 2, p. 451. (1907.) 



The palms with the long green thorns may be oil palms, Elaeis guineensis Jacq., 

 which have the lower pinnae narrow, stiff, and spine-like. Many other palms have 

 spines along the margins of the petioles, but usually short and brown or black in 

 color. The fruits of Elaeis are rather bitter when raw, but not after they have been 

 roasted. 



