The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1882-01-25
Written for The Florida Ag~iculturist.
The COcOa-Nut PaIm---ItS RO-
nance.
BY HELEN HARCoURT.

the vegetable kingdom, there is no one
family of plants so full of beauty, USE
fitness and majesty as the family OF the
palms.
Their prevailing form is familiar to
every one, for no trees are so often pics
tured as these, with their leafess, cylin-
drical stems, or StipeS, as they are
termed, surmounted by crown of
graceful, tapering leaves.
It may not be generally known, that
this distinguished family (ike many
human ones receives its name from one
of its most diminutive members, the
Dwarf ran palm, the only one indigenous
to Europe.
With this graceful little tree the Ro-
mans We're well acquainted, and from
them it received the name of Palma,
from the resemblance of its fan-shaped
leaves to the human hand.
Afterwards, when its numerous rela-
tives became more widely known, the
great similitude of their leaves caused
the name of palma or palm to be
bestowed upon them all, as the common
surname CT the whole family.
That many of these are as yet totally
unknown to fame" is not to be doubt
ed: each year come the tidings of the
discovery of some ''new PALM and
while nearly six hundred members have
been introduced into the botanical
world, and christian name bestowed
upon each, it is the opinion of our
savants that the entire family numbers
at least one thousand individuals, each
generous palm holding forth some ''good
and perfect gift for mans acceptance.
OF this royal race, there are two
which are pre-eminently familiar to the
world at large, because of their COM
mercal value of their products; these
are the date and cocoa-nut trees.
OF these two palms, it is difficult to
determine to which belongs the higher
rank; in genealogy, the date.palm un-
doubtedly has the advantage-it is the
''palm>tree'' of Scripture, and from
time immemorial has been an honored
dweller in its native lands, Asia and
Africa.
But on the contrary. over the birth
place of the cocoa'nut, there hangs a
strange mystery; the only palm indig-
enous to both hemispheres, ana having
a wider geographical! range, than any
other member OF its family-yet neither
in the East or West has its place of ma
tivity been clearly proven.
In the earliest reference to the cocoa
nut paim-one hundred and sixty~one
years B. Give find it mentioned as
growing in Ceylon, upon whose shores
its nuts had been cast by the friendly
ocean waves.
But whence came they, from tho main
land Of India or the far off continent of
America? This is question that must
forever remain unanswered, but fortu-
nately for mankind, the mystery of its
birth detracts in nothing from the use>
fulness of this tree, which may we'll be
called the ocean Palm"
Down upon the waye-washed coast,
with the salt spray dashing over its
stem and leaves. and flashing its roots,
the cocoa-nut loves to dwell; remove it
inland, where the sea, breeze cannot play
among its leaves, and it will droop and
languish.
Who has not read CT those wondrous
coral islands, whore the cocoa palm is
ever the first, and oftentimes the only
tree, to spring up amidst the reefs?
Many noble ship, many precious
life, has been saved by this ocean-lo7iug
DeStAl3 N1IASAj ICSG1lLS9 NAOM1A oiJOA GOIQ6
wave-hidden reef, sends its tall stem
heavenward, hourishing even, while the
sea washes over its base, and waving its
feathery leaves aloit, in warning to the
mariner, that he may avoid the danger
which else must have proved fatal to
him and his bark.
Yet, dweller by the eea as it is. and
basking in the warm sunshine the cocoa
nut loves not all tropical shores alike;
with one exception, that OF st. Jago, of
the Cape de Verd Islan:s-it is never
found upon volcanic shores. and in the
Sandwich Islands it grows but does not
flourish with its pristine vigor; like an
exile in a foreign land, it languishes as
though weary of life. The tree is smaller
and less hardy, and the fruit diminutive
IN comparison with its brethren of Cey-
Ion, an island which it dearly loves.
Yet even thus, so highly was it priced
by the natives, that for centuries q law
was In force, whereby women were fo1e
hidden to taste its fruit, under penalty
OF the dire displeasure OF their gods.
But the time came when this unjust
and superstitious law was to be rendered
null and void.
Oppressed as the native women were.
they yet possessed the right, in rare
cases. of inheriting the craftsmanship of
their fathers, and by one of these fav>
ored few was the right to partake of the
cocoa-nut won for all her sex. Disre-
garding the threatened vengeance of the
gods, as launched upon her by their
priests, she broke and ate one of these
hitherto sacred nuts, and no evil conse-
quences following, from that day the
prohibitory law was abolished through,
out the Sandwich Islands.
We have already remarked that this
\ beautiful palm has a wider geographical
| range than anV of itc l,;n1roJ tL; 4: