XII, c, 1 Beccari: Origin and Dispersal of Cocos Nucifera 41 
to the accumulation of guano deposited by sea birds ; and finally 
to the remains of the innumerable mollusks and crustaceans 
by which coral islands are usually populated. 
THE COCONUT PALM A HALOPHILOUS PLANT PECULIARLY ADAPTED 
TO TROPICAL SEA COASTS AND TO OCEANIC DISPERSAL 
A chemical analysis of the ashes of the coconut palm shows 
that all its organs contain chloride of sodium in considerable 
quantity; this salt, indeed, after the salts of potassium and of 
lime and the phosphates, being their most abundant constituent ; 
it is even more abundant than silica, which in the state of crys- 
tals is found to be especially abundant in the leaves. 
According to the summing up of Prudhomme,'’ a plantation of 
1 hectare of the coconut palm annually draws out of the soil 
120 kilograms of marine salt. And from Ferguson’s report 
we learn that an adult plant requires each year 1.34 kilograms 
of chloride of sodium. Salt, therefore, is considered an im- 
portant manure for the coconut palm — far more than the quant- 
ity found in its ashes appears to demonstrate. 
From the same source I learn that Doctor Gardner, to show 
the value that the Brasilians attribute to salt as a fertilizer 
for coconuts, states that “a man would walk many miles for it, 
pay high for a load, and then apply it to a single tree.” Else- 
where, it is stated that sea weeds and the ashes of plants that 
contain much salt are used as manures for the coconut palm. 
Ferguson also states (p. 142) that the Singhalese “invariably 
throw a little salt into the holes before they place the coconut 
plants in them.” And on page 111, speaking of a new plantation 
of coconuts which is being made inland and at a distance from 
the sea, he says ; “it is customary to throw a considerable quant- 
ity, as much as half a bushel, of salt into the hole which receives 
the coconuts.” 
Prudhomme, writing of the toleration of the coconut palm 
for marine salt, asks if marine salt should not be reckoned 
among the fertilizers to be administered to this palm, as it 
seemed to him, that instead of merely tolerating it, the coconut 
had a real preference for this salt. The excessive toxicity of 
sodium chloride for plants is well known; the coconut palm, 
however, is one of the few that can live on a salt soil. For that 
reason I am not able to understand how a plant endowed with 
“ Le Cocotier, 262. 
Op. cit. 66. 
Le Cocotier, 40. 
