28 The Philippine Journal of Science 1917 
three principal theses, with which I entirely disagree. They 
are: 
1. That Cocos nucifera must have assumed its actual specific 
characters upon the American continent, where it was found by 
Polynesian navigators, who later diffused it among their own 
islands, from whence it passed at a still later date into the Malay 
Archipelago and to the continent of Asia. 
2. That Cocos nucifera in Asia, Malaya, and Polynesia, as in 
all other places where it is now found, can in no wise dispense 
with man’s assistance and protection, without which it is inca- 
pable of maintaining its existence on the sea coasts. 
3. That the ocean currents cannot have been efficacious means 
of its diffusion or be responsible for its wide distribution. 
I have been the more induced to write these criticisms of Mr. 
Cook’s assertions because this opinion of the American origin of 
the coconut palm appears to have found favor with several scien- 
tific authorities, among them Hugo de Vries ’ and Geoffrey 
Smith.’ 
IS THE COCONUT PALM OF SOUTH AMERICAN ORIGIN? 
According to the thesis so ably and fully sustained by Cook, 
Cocos nucifera cannot be of Asiatic, Polynesian, or Malayan 
origin, but must be “a native of South America and carried west- 
ward across the Pacific in prehistoric times;” and its “original 
home must be sought in some sheltered valley of the Equatorial 
Andes.” 
The old argument — and it was a very good one for holding 
Cocos nucifera to be of American origin — namely, that all the 
other members of the Cocoineae (except Elaeis guineensis) are 
American,® has no longer any great weight, in view of the ex- 
ceptions that recent botanical discoveries have made known. 
In fact, the existence of a distinct species of Elaeis in Mada- 
gascar, different from E. guineensis, E. madagascariensis Bec- 
cari,‘ and the discovery of another true Cocoinea, Jubaeopsis 
“ Species and Varieties, etc., ed. 2, p. 82. 
'The Cambridge Natural History 4 (1909) Crustacea 173. 
' The presence in Madagascar of a species of Elaeis distinct from E. 
guineensis, almost induces me to suspect that the genus Elaeis should be 
regarded as being really African, and that instead of a representative 
having been carried from America to Africa, precisely the contrary oc- 
curred, and that the American Elaeis melanococca must be considered to be 
of African origin. 
’ Beccari, Palma del Madagascar 55, /. 46; Contribute alia conoscenza 
della Palma a olio (1914) 72, t. 18. 
