COMMENTS ON COOK’S THEORY AS TO THE AMERICAN 
ORIGIN AND PREHISTORIC POLYNESIAN DISTRI- 
BUTION OF CERTAIN ECONOMIC PLANTS, ESPE- 
CIALLY HIBISCUS TILIACEUS LINNAEUS 
By Elmer D. Merrill 
Director and Botanist, Bureau of Science, Manila 
Mr. 0. F. Cook, of the United States Department of Agricul- 
ture, has given considerable attention to the theory of the Amer- 
ican origin and the prehistoric distribution across Polynesia of 
various economic plant species, and has published several papers 
on the subject. In this series of papers there is considerable 
evidence that their author is inclined to draw conclusions from 
insufficient data, involving a lack of personal knowledge of the 
several species as they occur in nature in various parts of the 
world, especially in the Old World. It would seem also that, 
accepting the theory of American origin for a particular species, 
he is prone to discuss the data in support of that theory, subor- 
dinating or overlooking facts that are contrary to the general 
thesis. The result is that the arguments as presented and the 
conclusions derived therefrom are not always conclusive, and are 
certainly not always convincing from either a botanical or a 
philological standpoint. 
He has attempted to prove the American origin of the coconut 
( Cocos nucifera Linn.), and its transmission by the Polynesians 
across Polynesia to Malaya and tropical Asia in prehistoric 
times, 1 but more convincing to me are the arguments of Dr. 
0. Beccari 2 that it is a native of Polynesia' or tropical Asia, 
and that it is a halophilous plant, which may have been dissem- 
inated in part by ocean currents. 
Beccari, among other criticisms of Cook’s arguments, has 
shown that the palm does occur wild in nature, as witnessed by 
its unaided development on the isolated and uninhabited Palmyra 
1 The origin and distribution of the cocoa palm, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 
7 (1901) 257-293; History of the coconut palm in America, Contr. U. S. 
Nat. Herb. 14 (1910) 271-342. 
2 Beccari, O., The origin and dispersal of Cocos nucifera, Philip. Journ. 
Sci. 12 (1917) Bot. 27-43. 
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