Botany.
The cocoanut (Cocos nucifera Linn.) is the sole oriental representative of a tropical genus comprising nineteen species, restricted, with this single exception, to the New World.
Its geographical distribution is closely confined to the two Tropics.[1]
Not less than nineteen varieties of C. nucifera are described by Miquel and Rumphius, and all are accepted by Filipino authors.
Whether all of these varieties are constant enough to deserve recognition need not be considered here. Many are characterized by the fruits being distinctly globular, others by fruits of a much prolonged oval form, still others by having the lower end of the fruit terminating in a triangular point.
In the Visayas there is a variety in which the fibrous outer husk of the nut is sweet and watery, instead of dry and astringent, and is chewed by the natives like sugar cane. Another variety occurs in Luzon, known as “Pamocol,” the fruit of which seldom exceeds 20 cm. in diameter. There is also a dwarf variety of the palm, which rarely exceeds 3 meters in height, and is known to the Tagalogs as “Adiavan.”
These different varieties are strongly marked, and maintain their characters when reproduced from seed.
[1] The cocoanut palm has been reared as far north as Indian River, Florida, latitude 28° N., but has not proven a profitable commercial venture.