538  Fruit  of  Cocas  Nucifera.  {*S£S&gXr 
The  resulting  solution  is  a  clear,  light  yellow  and  pleasantly 
aromatic  solution  that  appears  to  keep,  without  any  appreciable 
change  in  its  peptonizing  properties. 
THE  ANATOMY  OF  THE  FRUIT  OF  COCOS  NUCIFERA.1 
By  A.  L.  Winton.2 
(Contribution  from  The  Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  New 
Haven,  Conn. ) 
I.     MORPHOLOGY  AND  MACROSCOPIC  STRUCTURE. 
Since  the  general  structure  of  the  cocoanut  fruit  has  been  treated 
by  numerous  writers  on  systematic  and  economic  botany,  only  such 
facts  are  here  given  as  are  essential  for  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
relation  of  the  parts  and  the  microscopic  structure. 
The  flowers  are  arranged  in  spikes  branching  from  a  central  axis 
and  inclosed  within  a  tough  spathe  usually  a  meter  or  more  in  length 
{Fig.  i).  A  single  female  flower  is  borne  near  the  base  of  each 
lateral  axis,  and  numerous  male  flowers  are  distributed  on  all  sides 
of  the  axis  between  the  female  flower  and  the  apex.  After  the 
male  flowers  drop,  each  naked  lateral  axis  persists  and  is  a  promi- 
nent appendage  of  the  fruit  (Figs.  2  and  j  S).  Only  one  ovule  of 
the  three-celled  ovary  comes  to  maturity,  but  the  tricarpelary 
nature  of  the  fruit  is  indicated  by  its  triangular  shape  as  well  as  by 
the  longitudinal  ridges  and  the  three  eyes  or  germinating  hole  of 
the  nut. 
The  epicarp  of  the  fruit  (Fig.  j,  Epi)  is  a  smooth  tough  coat,  of  a 
brownish  or  grayish  color. 
1  Reprinted  from  The  American  Journal  of  Science,  Vol.  xii,  October,  1901. 
2  European  microscopists  have  studied  the  foods  and  adulterants  which  have 
come  under  their  observation  but  have  overlooked  a  number  of  distinctly 
American  products.  The  writer  has  undertaken  to  fill  in  some  of  these  gaps 
by  a  series  of  papers,  of  which  this  is  the  second.  The  first  paper,  on  the 
anatomy  of  maize  cob,  was  published  in  the  Oesterreichische  Chemiker-Zeit- 
ung,  1900,  p.  345,  and  also  in  the  Conn.  Experiment  Station  Report,  1900,  p. 
186. 
Each  paper  will  describe  from  the  purely  scientific  standpoint  the  macrosco- 
pic and  histological  structure  of  the  material  investigated,  and  also  in  a  final 
chapter  point  out  the  application  of  this  knowledge  to  the  detection  of  adultera- 
tion. The  last  chapter  is  not  strictly  suited  to  the  pages  of  this  Journal,  but 
is  so  dependent  on  the  scientific  descriptions  which  precede  it  that  it  would  be 
almost  valueless  if  published  separately. 
