36 The Philippine Journal of Science 1917 
The coconut palm (always according to Cook) “cannot be disseminated 
by ocean currents.” He says that (I, p. 277) “it is far from correct to 
suppose that all nuts [of the coconut palm] which reach the water are 
really launched for oceanic wanderings; the chances are still hundreds to 
one that they will be thrown back immediately upon their own coast, like 
other objects floating in the surf. High waves or tides, instead of floating 
shore debris away, merely carry it farther inland, as everybody familiar 
with seacoasts knows.” 
That there may be some coasts the surf on which has greater 
power of carrying away material than of bringing it thither, 
I admit ; but that, as a general rule, the sea does not throw back 
floating objects of various kinds, including the fruits and seeds 
of plants, is undeniable. How could all the strand floras of 
the world have been formed, if the sea did not carry their seeds 
to the beaches by means of its currents? Furthermore, suppose 
it were true that the surf does carry objects inland, would not 
that be a favorable circumstance for the dissemination of fruits 
which have fallen on other beaches bathed by the same sea, 
or into the sea itself? 
THE COCONUT PALM DOES NOT ALWAYS STAND IN NEED OF THE 
ASSISTANCE OP MAN 
Cook believes (I, p. 280) that “human assistance” is necessary to the 
introduction and maintenance of the coconut palm, and he says (II, p. 296) 
that this palm “is not known to exist except as a cultivated plant;” and 
(II, p. 297) that “we should find old palms surrounded by flourishing 
young' ones growing spontaneously without the aid of man.” And 
again, “There seems to be no authentic record of coco palms establishing 
and maintaining themselves on any tropical coast in a wild or truly 
spontaneous condition.” He adds that: “The complete absence of coconuts 
from the extensive tropical coast line of Australia until planted by European 
colonists” is, “a gigantic experiment showing that the coconut did not 
establish itself without human help, even in a place where it afterwards 
thrived in cultivation.” Cook (II, p. 299) also quotes Pickering to the 
effect that “throughout the Pacific the coconut occurs only on those islands 
to which it has been carried by the natives.” From another author ^ Cook 
quotes: “It is to be emphasized that all coconuts are planted; the idea of 
a wild palm being as strange in Funafuti as that of a wild peach in 
England * * * j doubt whether, despite popular opinion to the con- 
trary, a wild coconut palm can be found throughout the breadth of the 
Pacific.” 
That the assistance of man is necessary to the coconut palm is 
indubitable whenever it is cultivated in districts wherein there 
are not combined all the conditions of climate, etc., which 
its nature as a halophilous plant demands, and wherein it 
“Pickering C., Chronological History of Plants (1879) 428. 
” Hedley, Australian Mus. Memoir 3 (1896) 22. 
