Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 January 1896 — THE COCOANUT PALM. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE COCOANUT PALM.

Its Manner of Growth and Its Relentlean Energy. Those who have never seen a long, straggling grove of cocoanut trees, by the seashore, with their feet buried in the gleaming sands and their heads held aloft in the azure of a tropical sky, can form but little idea of the picturesqueness of these interesting palms. Though facetiously described by Mark Twain as “gigantic feather-dus-ters, struck by lightning,” they are, nevertheless, princes of the vegetable world and sometimes attain the height of 120 feet, with stems two feet in diameter. Many of the tallest specimens, however, are blown by the wind to such abrupt angles that their altitude

is materially diminished. The trunks being formed by the annual falling of the leaves, it is possible to tell the age of the tree by> counting the circular scars on thebdfk. Though also flourishing in the interior localities on coral islands, they are especially vigorous when within reach of the salt spray of the ocean; and the nuts, falling upon the restless waves, are carried to distant shores to vegetate. The arch enemy of these palms on the shores of most of the cocoanut islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans is what is known as the “robber crab,” a singular crustacean which sometimes reaches the length of nearly four feet, though the average measurement is twenty-three inches from the point of the front claw to the end of the abdomen. The grip of their powerful pinchers is said to be sufficient to break the arm of a strong man; and it has been asserted that these fierce creatures occasionally carry off and devour very young, helpless children, though o'ne finds it difficult to credit the statement. There are practically no bonds to

their depredations, as they are carried on mainly in the nighttime and with greatest regularity, while their number are often so great as to discourage any attempts at extermination. If surprised while sleeping, however, in the daytime, in holes or hollow stumps, they are captured without danger, if the formidable claws are deftly seized in a bunch. Scaling the long, slim tree trunks till they reach the branches, they sever the largest and choicest nuts from their stems by tearing away the strong fibers until the prize falls to the ground. Then, swiftly descending, the thief drags its unwieldy booty to its neighboring den. and proceeds patiently, bit by bit. to remove the tough outer husk. Tliis accomplished after several days’ work, one of the pinchers is inserted in an “eye” of the inner shell, and the nut either pounded upon a rock to crack it. or broken up "into small pieces with the claws. Now. ponies the feast, which lasts week, when a second cocoanut is added to the menu.

COCOANUT GROVE BY THE SEA.

THE COCOANUT CRAB.