336 CONTRIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HEEBAEIUM. 



the south of France, where large trees exist more than 30 years old. 

 Twelve degrees of frost have been endured with little or no injury.® 



While experimental plantings of coconuts in frost-free localities 

 in southern California and Arizona are desirable to test the possibility 

 of introducing the coconut into a new region, no assurance can be 

 given in advance that the undertaking will be successful, either to 

 the extent of affording a new agricultural industry or to the lesser 

 extent of introducing a new ornamental palm. The fact that the 

 coconut is not limited to maritime conditions, as usually supposed, 

 but is adapted to dry climates, simply means that previous ideas of 

 the habits of the palm should not be allowed to stand in the way of 

 further study of its possibilities. 



The only assurances that can now be given are that the climatic 

 factors do not appear likely to exclude the palm from an extra- 

 tropical distribution in frost-free interior localities with adequate 

 exposure to sunlight, and that the heat requirement is not as great 

 as in the case of the date palm. Whether coconuts can be made to 

 thrive in any locality in the United States outside of Florida can 

 only be determined by experiment. Other factors that are not to 

 be foreseen may interfere with or entirely preclude success. Locusts 

 or other insects or diseases may destroy the palms, as they have 

 done in other parts of the world, or the soil conditions may prove 

 unsuited in some manner that can not be corrected. It is also 

 possible that the palms may not tolerate cold weather, even above 

 the freezing point. Some tropical plants are permanently injured 

 by cold, even when the freezing temperatures are not reached, but 

 this susceptibility is not conspicuous among the palms and is not 

 very likely to appear in the coconut, in view of what we already 

 know of its ability to exist in dry and elevated regions subject to 

 marked changes of temperature. 



To undertake the commercial planting of coconuts in California 

 before experiments have shown its feasibility would be altogether 

 unwarranted. Such a caution may appear to some readers as alto- 

 gether superfluous, but not to those who are familiar with the losses 

 that have come from the premature expansion of rubber culture 

 and other tropical industries in recent years. It is quite possible 

 that coconut palms will be found to grow well in localities where 

 they are able to produce little or no fruit. This would preclude 

 commercial cultivation, but if coconut palms will grow in California, 

 even without producing fruit, their introduction will be abundantly 

 repaid, for they are one of the most beautiful objects in the whole 

 vegetable kingdom and would be "a very great grace" in California 

 as in the "citie of Porto Rico." 



a Andre, E., Revue Horticole, vol. 74, p. 8. (1902.) 



