EFFECT OF LIGHTNING ON COCONUT PALMS. 
37 
but he had never seen any tree on fire during the rain, a fact 
which he thought might be explained by supposing that the 
tree could not take fire when wet. On the other hand, 
another well-known coconut planter, Mr. Jardine, wrote that 
he had never seen a coconut tree set on fire by lightning or a 
meteorite, though he had seen hundreds struck by lightning 
(“ Tropical Agriculturist,” Vol. XV., page 345). 
In 1907 it was reported in the local press that a coconut 
palm in Colombo had been set on fire by lightning during a 
storm. 
This effect would appear to occur in the case of coconut 
palms in town gardens, where many old trees, hemmed in by 
buildings, are barely able to exist, and so may bear more 
dead and dry fronds than their more fortunate relatives on 
cultivated estates. But it is certainly not the most usual 
effect of lightning. That it should occur before the rain and 
not during the storm is only to be expected, as the coconut 
stem is rapidly wetted by the stream of rain water which 
descends from the crown, and under such conditions it forms 
an efficient conductor. 
Mechanical Injury. 
H. H. Thiele, writing in the Fiji Planters’ Journal ” (see 
Tropical Agriculturist,” December, 1913, page 462), states : 
Lightning will, as a rule, shatter one or two trees badly, and 
those standing close by will be damaged by the heat to such 
an extent that they get diseased, their tops rot, and they die, 
their stems being marked with a number of brown spots.” 
How far this is based on actual observation is not apparent. 
In the ‘‘ Tropical Agriculturist,” Vol. VI., page 73, the 
editor wrote : ‘‘ During the last monsoon storms twelve fine 
palms, a little to the south of the KoUupitiya station, were 
struck. Five of these were practically decapitated and others 
were badly burnt, but some were only affected so that a slight 
brown colour showed on a few of the branches.” 
Shattering of the stem or immediate decapitation of the 
coconut palm would appear to be rare. I have never seen any 
case of decapitation as a direct and immediate consequence of 
lightning. Of course, when a palm dies after having been 
