XII, c, 1 Beccari: Origin and Dispersal of Cocos Nucifera 43 
CONCLUSIONS 
From the preceding study, which was chiefly suggested to me 
by the conditions in which the Palmyra Islands were found by 
their explorers, Messrs. H. E. Cooper and J. F. Rock, I conclude ; 
1. That the coconut palm may have been very easily dissemin- 
ated by the agency of oceanic currents. 
2. That the coconut palm is a halophilous plant with a predilec- 
tion for the sea shore. 
3. That an Asiatic or Polynesian origin of the coconut palm 
is more probable than an American one. 
4. That the coconut palm can occasionally exist and reproduce 
itself in the tropics indepedently of man, and that the latter’s 
protection is necessary to it only when it occurs in regions 
wherein its existence is disputed by the nature of the soil, by 
other preexisting vegetation, or by foes of various kinds. 
