THE FRUITS OF PALMS 
program of many of the fruits — that of offering a bribe 
to whoever would carry its seed away. 
The cocoanut palm, growing on a sandy beach of a 
South Pacific island, faced a different problem. It 
wanted to get its seed away from where it stood to some 
other sandy beach where there would be more room for 
it to grow. 
It used to be the theory that the cocoanut palm de¬ 
pended on the waves and ocean currents to broadcast its 
seed, and that it was because of this that it developed its 
fruit into a great, hollow sphere with a light-weight husk 
about it that would float readily. 
This theory seems of late to have been disproved. 
Some one put cocoanuts in salt water, kept them there 
for given lengths of time, tested them, and found that 
they would not grow. The theory most generally ac¬ 
cepted now is that the cocoanut has made itself accept¬ 
able as food to the South Sea Islander, who has carried it 
with him wherever he has gone and thus spread it. 
At any rate, these trees are widely scattered through 
the tropics. Multitudes of them yield each one hundred 
nuts a year to man, who has built upon them the great 
copra-producing industry of the world. This copra, the 
dried meat inside the nut, finds its way into cocoanut 
candy and the frosting of cakes all around the world. 
Much more important commercially is cocoanut oil, 
which is the fat pressed from copra. This oil has many 
uses, one of which is that of being a butter substitute. 
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