DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE. 



121 



man del and Malabar districts, and in the adjacent islands, it grows in the greatest 

 luxuriance, preferring the sandy and rocky seashores to the higher country, though 

 it is often found some distance inland. It is common in Africa, and abounds in Amer- 

 ica and tho West India Islands. Dr. Parry found it plentiful on the island of Santo 

 Domingo, where it forms groves on the sandy beaches at the outlet of mountain 

 streams, and bears fruit abundantly. It is found in southern Florida, 20,000 trees 

 having been planted on Long, Lignum-vitae, and Sands keys alone, while examples 

 80 feet high and 50 years old are found at the mouth of the Miami Eiver. Grows to 

 100 feet. Fig. 1, PI. IV, is from a pho- 

 tograph of a tree about 7 years old, 

 growing on Long Key. 



Its extensive geographical distribu- 

 tion is accounted for by the fact that 

 the tree growing in such close prox- 

 imity to the sea the fruits falling on 

 the beach are washed away by the 

 waves and afterwards cast upon some 

 far distant shore, where they readily 

 vegetate. It is in this way that the 

 coral islands in the Indian Ocean have 

 been covered with these palms. 



Structural Fiber. — Coir fiber ap- 

 pears in the form of large, stiff, and 

 very elastic filaments, each individual 

 of which is round, smooth, very clean, 

 resembling horsehair. It posesses a 

 remarkable tenacity and curls easily. 

 Its color is a cinnamon brown. These 

 filaments are bundles of fibers, which, 

 when treated with the alkaline bath 

 and ground in a mortar, are with diffi- 

 culty separated by the needles for mi- 

 croscopic examination. 



The individual fibers are short and 

 stiff, their walls very thick, notwith- 

 standing which this thickness does 

 not equal the size of the interior canal. 

 The surface does not appear smooth ; 

 it is often sinuous and the profile ap- 

 pears dentated. The diameter is not 

 very regular. The points terminate 

 suddenly and are not sharp. The walls 

 appear broken in places as if they were pierced with fibers, corresponding with the 

 fissures of the sections. 



Economic considerations. — The fiber of the cocoa palm is contained in the husk 

 of the nut, fig. 42, which is composed of a mass of coir, as the separated, fiber is called. 

 The husks are removed by forcing the nuts upon sharp iron or wooden spikes fixed 

 in the ground ? one man being able to remove the husks from 1,000 nuts daily. The 

 proper time for cutting the fruit is in the tenth month, as the fruit must not be 

 allowed to get thoroughly ripe, for the fiber becomes coarser and more difficult to 

 twist, and. must remain longer in the soaking pits, whijh is a disadvantage, as the 

 fiber is rendered darker. These pits in some of the islands are merelv holes in the 

 sand, and the nuts lie under the influence of salt water a year, kept from floating 

 away by large stones placed over them. Sometimes the nuts are soaked in fresh- 

 water tanks, and, as the water is not changed, it becomes in time very foul and 

 dark colored, which affects the color of the coir. After soaking, the fiber is readily 



Fig. 41.— Cocoanut tree, Cape Florida. 



