44 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL, XIX. 



The fullest version I have seen of the " Traditional account 

 of the original discovery of the coconut tree, by an ancient 

 Sinhalese Prince of the Interior of the Island of Ceylon " is 



ashore, was long- doubted ; and if the recent evidence collected by Professor 

 Moseley, Mr. EL O. Forbes, and Dr. Guppy, together with the general 

 distribution of the palm, be not sufficient to convince the most sceptical 

 person on this point, there is now absolutely incontrovertible evidence 

 that it is capable of doing so, even under apparently very unfavourable 

 conditions. In the current volume of Nature (page 276) Capt. Wha rton 

 describes the newly-raised Falcon Island in the Pacific ; and in the last 

 part of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society Mr. J. J. 

 Lister gives an account of the natural history of the island. From this 

 interesting contribution to the sources of the insular floras we learn that 

 he found two young coconut palms, not in a very flourishing condition, it 

 is true ; but they were there, and had evidently obtained a footing unaided 

 by man. There were also a grass, a leguminous plant, and a young candle- 

 nut (Aleurites) on this new volcanic island — a very good start under the 

 circumstances, and suggestive of what might happen in the course of 

 centuries. — W. Sotting Hemsley (Nature, April 5, 1890). 



This was answered in the following issue : — With reference to Mr. 

 Hemsley's note on this subject to Nature (page 537), I regret to have to 

 inform him that the two young palms found on Falcon Island were placed 

 there by a Tongan Chief of Namuka,who in 1887 had the curiosity to visit 

 the newly-born island, and took some coconuts with him. This informa- 

 tion I received from Commander Oldham, who had been much interested 

 at finding these sprouting nuts at some 12 feet above sea-level and well in 

 from the shore of the Island, but who found out the unexpected facts 

 in time to save me from making a speculation somewhat similar to 

 Mr. Hemsley's. — W. J. L. Wharton (Nature, April 24, 1890). 



A writer in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago for 1850 observes 

 that the tendency of the coco palm to bend above the sea, causing its fruit 

 to drop into the water, appears to account for its extension to the numerous 

 islands and atolls to which the nut is floated by the winds and tide. The 

 little island of Pulo Merga off Sumatra, not a mile round and so low that 

 the tide flows over it, is of a sandy soil and full of coconut trees, although 

 at every spring tide the salt water goes clear over the island — so fond is the 

 palm of the sea and salt. 



"Essentially littoral," says Dr. Hartwig, in his Tropical World, "this 

 noble palm requires an atmosphere damp with the spray and moisture of 

 the sea to acquire its full stateliness and growth ; and, while along 

 the bleak shores of the northern ocean the trees are generally bent land- 

 ward by the rough sea breeze, and send forth no branches to face its 

 violence, the coco, on the contrary, loves to bend over the rolling surf and 

 to drop its fruits into the tidal wave. Wafted by the winds and currents 

 over the sea. the nuts float along without losing their germinating powei\ 

 like other seeds which migrate through the air ; and thus, during the 



