San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-05-06

truer to the pole than IS the root OF 5ii-
cocOanut tree to the ocean, for when the
root breaks through the husk it points
directly toward the sea, no matter in what
position the nut is placed in the ground
THE GROWING TREE.
Boring its way downward the root fastens
itself so deep and firmly in the ground that
no tornado, no matter how severe, has ever
been known to wrench it from it's moor
ings, but the hurricane, so frequent in the
tropics, will often twist the trunks and
carry the broken portions long distance,
thus ending that cocoanut palm, as it will
not sprout second time. Could you ex-
anime cocOanut when in the process of
sprouting you will find directly beneath
the sprOuting eye a small white mushroom
shaped kernel, and in this little germ lies
the life of the future tree. Shut up in its
prison like she'll, and the shell surrounded
by many inches thick of tough and tangled
fiber, how is it to work its way out and
perform the duty assigned to it? For it is
apparently soft and tender as a baby's
hand.
Soon it's tiny fingers begin boring their
way out of the weakest eye, then, rending
the tough woody fiber right and left, it
forces itself to the surface and commences
the campaign of life, sending its shoot up
ward to form the tree and downward to
form the roots, still clinging to its parent
for support, until the entire inside of the
shell is filed with round, ball like sub
stance that is formed by the CONCEALED
milk of the cOcOanut. From it the roots
fast forming receive their staff of life until
Il,
having fulfilled her mission, is deserted by
her offspring and left a dead and useless
mass of fiber.
OngrOws the tree, sending deep into the
ground its roots and high into the air its
trunk until after lapse of from five to
eight years it has attained a height of
from forty to sixty feet, and then pays trib-
ute to mother earth by bearing its first
fruit, and under favorable circumstances
continuing to yield for more than half a
century, giving its owner from 100 to 200
marketable nuts Il year.
\ NATURAL FILTER.
Through the center of the trunk of the
cocoanut tree is a soft, fibrous heart which
furnishes the life of the tree and acts as a
great pump in forcing to the nuts the inn
mense quantity of water required to fill
them This fbrous heart has wonderful
filtering power, for no matter in what 10
cation the tree may be growing, either
upon the beach or in the malarial swamps
near the pools of stagnant water, when
nature has done her work she deposits in
the cocoanut a sparkling liquid as clear as
cryGtai and as cool as if drawn from the
deepest well in our northern yards. Hav-
ing no particular season for Gruiting, but
bearing all the year round, blossoms, ripe
and green fruit may be found on the same
tree.
The blossom OF the COcOanut is a most
beautiful and peculiar work of natures
art Appearing at the base of the long
ragged leaves is a gOurd like sheath, green
in color and standing erect until its own
weight causes it to bend downward, where
it hangs until the stems it incloses, which
are to bear and sustain the nuts, are sufli-
GENTLY matured TO proceed on their jour
ney without protection. When this outer
covering splits open it reveals a cluster of
ragged stems, upon each of which you will
find miniature cOcOanuts requiring about
fourteen months to ripen.
Among the many difficulties which the
cocoanut grower has to contend with be.
sides hurricanes are the flying fox and the
cocOanut beetle, both of which are very
destructive to the young trees, eating their
way in all directions into the stems, de-
stroying alike both foliage and fruit. But
a still greater enemy to the COcOanut is the
robber crab, common along the coasts of
all tropical islands, and which subsists en-
tirely upon COUOanut det.-Joseph Wright
in Merchants Eeview.