Changes

Coconut. Plate XXVII. Figs. 1011, 1012, 1014, 1015. The coconut, Cocos nucifera, is the most important of cultivated palms. Its nearest relatives, whether or not regarded as in the same genus, are natives of tropical America. For this and for other reasons which have been presented by Cook, it must be believed that the coconut is a native of America, and that it was carried westward across the Pacific in prehistoric times. While the nut will float and retain its power of germination for a considerable time, its propagation from island to island in known cases has practically always been the deliberate work of men, and it is probable that men were also responsible for its crossing the Pacific. It was a cultivated plant in Polynesia and Malaya, and in many places the chief crop, at the time of the discovery of this part of the world by Europeans. But it reached Ceylon recently enough so that its introduction is a matter of fairly reliable legend. It is now grown in all tropical countries except the interior of continents. Its cultivation extends somewhat beyond the tropics, both north and south, but its growth at these extremes, in Florida, India and Madagascar, is not thrifty enough to give it any industrial importance. Within the last two decades, the rise in the price of oils and the discovery of new uses for coconut-oil have caused a tremendous increase in the area devoted to the plantation and cultivation of coconuts.

Coconut. Plate XXVII. Figs. 1011, 1012, 1014, 1015. The coconut, Cocos nucifera, is the most important of cultivated palms. Its nearest relatives, whether or not regarded as in the same genus, are natives of tropical America. For this and for other reasons which have been presented by Cook, it must be believed that the coconut is a native of America, and that it was carried westward across the Pacific in prehistoric times. While the nut will float and retain its power of germination for a considerable time, its propagation from island to island in known cases has practically always been the deliberate work of men, and it is probable that men were also responsible for its crossing the Pacific. It was a cultivated plant in Polynesia and Malaya, and in many places the chief crop, at the time of the discovery of this part of the world by Europeans. But it reached Ceylon recently enough so that its introduction is a matter of fairly reliable legend. It is now grown in all tropical countries except the interior of continents. Its cultivation extends somewhat beyond the tropics, both north and south, but its growth at these extremes, in Florida, India and Madagascar, is not thrifty enough to give it any industrial importance. Within the last two decades, the rise in the price of oils and the discovery of new uses for coconut-oil have caused a tremendous increase in the area devoted to the plantation and cultivation of coconuts.