54 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jan., 1898. 
stock of young plants can be kept on hand to fill the place of those that die, 
and perhaps this is what the writer had in view who estimated the life of a 
plantation at a century or more. By the kindness of the director of Kew 
Gardens, we received in 1891 a box by parcels post, containing about twenty 
small plants, which were at once put out, but in consequence of the length of 
time they had been in the box they were somewhat damaged, and took some 
little time to recover, but they are now good-sized plants,-and leaves fit for 
cutting might have been taken from them some months ago. 
We have in the gardens two plants of Furerea Lindeni, which were 
planted in 1884, the leaves of which are now 8 feet long, and weigh about 10 lb. 
each. These plants have each about 140 to 150 leaves fit for cutting, in 
addition to numerous withered leaves at the base of the stem. Neither of 
these plants have shown any sign of poling, but one of them has produced 
suckers from its axils at the base, which are now in flower, and will probably 
produce bulbils. 
The disadvantage of this plant is that the edges are furnished with spines 
which would render them troublesome to handle and work. Mr. Baker, in 
his “Handbook of Amaryllidex,” states that this plant is a variety of 
F. cubensis with variegated leaves. Ff. cubensis was, and perhaps still is, 
cultivated for its fibre in Mauritius, and in the Kew Bulletin for 1887 I find 
the following note about it:—‘“Silk grass (Hurerea cubensis), leaves 5 to 6 
feet long, generally armed with strong prickles, but sometimes unarmed or 
with few prickles. Common in Jamaica, and might be largely propagated at 
once. Value of fibre—(a) £21 good quality, but might be whiter; (0) fairl 
clean, fair colour, value about £28 per ton; (ec) superior to sisal, and eel 
£27 perton. A good fibre, not quite sufficiently white in the centre.” These 
refer, of course, to different samples of the same fibre. 
A sample of fibre from two leaves of Furcrea cubensis may be seen at 
the gardens. phy. 
THE COCOANUT (COOOS NUCIFERA). 
By E. COWLEY, 
Manager, Kamerunga State Nursery, Cairns. 
Tus most useful of all the palms seems to have obtained a slight natural 
_ introduction on our Northern coast and on the islands adjacent, it being found 
indigenous at some points north of Cardwell. No .extensive groves are, 
however, met with. ‘his palm does not abound on any of the better known 
islands of Torres Straits. One island is called “ Cocoanut Island”; there are, 
however, probably not more than twenty cocoanut palms growing onit. For 
some unknown cause Nature’s distribution of Cocos nucifera has not extended 
to Australia. Where the original nut was first grown seems to have been a 
source of conjecture from times immemorial. Nicholson gives the date of its 
collection from the East Indies as 1690. An old encyclopedia says it is a 
native of Africa, the East and West Indies, and South America. ‘Travellers 
in the South Sea Islands know it to be a native of those localities, The atolls 
of the Indian Ocean have these as almost their only vegetable production, 
so that the range is great. When we consider, however, that Nature 
has so constructed the nut that it will float for a long time in water, 
and that salt water is not inimical to its life preservation, the wonder 
is that our shores have not long ago been strewn with living cocoanuts.* 
It has been remarked, and is probably true, that the aboriginal natives 
Tt tn a do ces 
* Tn 1870, there were two cocoanut-trees growing on Rattlesnake Island, Cleveland Bay. 
They were cut down by persons unknown. Cocoanuts also were then growing on the Percy or ’ 
Franklin Islands, between Townsville and Cooktown.—Ed. Q.4.J. 
