PLATE XLVIII. Cocos nucifera, Linnæus.
Reading edition
Coqueiro, Portuguese.
The Cocoa-nut.
The stem of this well-known palm is very smooth, seldom quite erect, and often much thicker at the bottom. The leaves are large, terminal and regularly pinnate. The leaflets are rigid, and spread out very flat on each side of the midrib. From the sheathing bases of the petioles grows a compact fibrous material resembling in texture the spathe of the Bussú.
The spadices are produced from among the leaves, and are large and simply branched. The fruits are very large, and have a dense fibrous external covering over the well-known cocoa-nut.
This tree is not a native of South America, but as it is generally cultivated in every part of the tropics, I have given a figure of it. Its peculiar characteristic is the rigidity of its leaves, which curve or droop very slightly, and the leaflets spread out with remarkable flatness and regularity. The stem also is rather massive in accordance with the immense weight of fruit which it produces, and the whole tree, though exceedingly handsome, has not that light and feathery appearance which it is often represented as possessing. It is not impossible, however, that it may have acquired 113by its naturalization in America an aspect differing somewhat from its characteristic features when growing on the sea-shore, on the coral islands of India and the Pacific.
There it is of the greatest utility to man. It supplies food and drink and oil. Its fibres are woven into cordage and matting, and it even furnishes animal as well as vegetable food, herds of swine being fed and fattened entirely on its fruit.
On the banks of the Amazon, on the contrary, we see at once that it is in a foreign land. It flourishes indeed with great luxuriance, but no part of it is applied to any useful purpose, the fruit only being consumed as an occasional luxury. In the towns and larger villages where the Portuguese have settled it has been planted, but among the Indians of the interior it is still quite unknown.
114List of the Palms described in this Work, with their Native Names and Uses.
Botanical Name. Native Name. Uses.
Leopoldinia
pulchra Jará Stem used for fencing, rafters, &c.
major Jará assú Fruit for making salt.
piassaba Piassába Fibre for cordage, brooms, &c.; leaves for thatching; fruit eatable.
Euterpe
oleracea Assaí Fruit for making a drink; stem for rafters, &c.
catinga Assaí de Catinga Fruit for making a drink.
Œnocarpus
baccaba Baccába Fruit makes a drink and oil; leaves for thatching.
batawá Patawá Fruit makes a drink; spinous processes used for making arrows.
disticha Baccába Leaves for thatching.
minor Baccába miri Fruit makes a drink.
Iriartea
exorhiza Pashiúba Stem split for floors and ceilings, &c.; air-roots for graters.
ventricosa Pashiúba barriguda Stem split for lances, harpoons, floors, &c.; swollen part of stem for canoes.
setigera Pashiúba miri Stem hollowed for making blowtubes or Gravatánas.
Raphia
tædigera Jupatí Leaf-stalks split for making boxes, partitioning houses, doors, &c.
Mauritia
flexuosa Mirití Fruit makes a drink; fibres of twisted into string for hammocks, &c.; leaf-stalks as the last.
aculeata Caranaí Fruit makes a drink.
gracilis Caranaí Fruit makes a drink.
pumila Caranaí Not known.
caraná Caraná Leaves good for thatch; leaf-stalks used as those of Raphia tædigera.
Lepidocaryum
tenue Caranaí do Mato None.
115
Geonoma
multiflora Ubimrána These species and others allied all have the leaves more or less used for thatching.
paniculigera Ubim de Cotiwiya
rectifolia Ubimrána
Manicaria
saccifera Bussú Leaves the best for thatching;
spathe for caps, wrappers &c.
Desmoncus
macroacanthus Jacitára Bark makes “tipitis” or elastic
cylinders for squeezing the
grated mandiocca.
Bactris
pectinata Iú These little prickly palms seem not to be applied to any particular uses.
n.s. Marayarána
elatior Marayarána
n.s. Unknown
macrocarpa Iú
tenuis Iú
simplicifrons Iú
maraja Marajá Fruit eatable.
integrifolia Iú None.
Guilielma
speciosa Pupúnha Fruit very good and nutritious; wood very hard, black and durable.
Acrocomia
lasiospatha Mucujá Fruit eatable.
Astrocaryum
murumurú Murumurú Cattle eat fruit.
gynacanthum Mumbáca None.
vulgare Tucúm Leaf-fibres for cordage.
tucumá Tucumá Fruit eatable.
jauarí Jauarí Nuts for lace-bobbin heads.
aculeatum Marayá None. Others with the same name have eatable fruit.
acaule Iú Bark of leaf-stalks for baskets.
humile Iú Fruit eatable.
Attalea
speciosa Uauassú Leaves for thatch.
excelsa Urucurí Fruit burnt for smoking rubber.
spectabilis Curúa Leaves for thatch.
Maximiliana
regia Inajá Fruit eatable.
Cocos
nucifera Coqueiro The Cocoa-nut; fruit eatable.
116The genera of Palms found in America are thirty-six in number. Thirty-two of these are entirely confined to it, while only four are common to the Old and New Worlds, as shown in the following list:—
List of the American Genera of Palms.
Name of Genus. No. of species mentioned in this Work. Species found in America. Species of American Genera in the Old World.
Chamedorea 0 23 0
Hyospathe 0 1 0
Morenia 0 2 0
Kunthia 0 1 0
Leopoldinia 3 4 0
Euterpe 3 12 0
Œnocarpus 4 6 0
Oreodoxia 0 6 0
Reinhardtia 0 1 0
Iriartea 4 9 0
Ceroxylon 0 3 0
Raphia 1 1 2
Mauritia 7 8 0
Lepidocaryum 1 2 0
Geonoma 3 33 0
Manicaria 1 1 0
Copernicia 0 6 0
Brahea 0 2 0
Sabal 0 9 0
Trithrinax 0 2 0
Chamærops 0 2 6
Thrinax 0 8 0
Desmoncus 1 14 0
Bactris 9 46 0
Guilielma 1 3 0
Martinezia 0 4 0
Acrocomia 1 8 0
Astrocaryum 8 17 0
Elœis 0 1 1
Attalea 3 16 0
Maximiliana 1 3 0
Orbignia 0 3 0
Syagrus 0 5 0
Diplothemium 0 5 0
Jubæa 0 1 0
Cocos 1 17 1
Totals 52 285 10
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.