Varieties and Forms of the Coconut

The Country of Origin:The coconut belongs to the family of palms viz.,Palmaceae.It is a very useful tree cultivated by man from very ancient times.De Candolle and and others consider the Indian Archipelago to be the original home of the coconut.It is a unique species in respect of the characters of the stem and the nut and is very much unlike any - other known species of Cocos.The coconut stads in a class by itsel.There are some thirty species of Cocos and all these are wild in native America,though some of them have been brought under cultivation for ornamental purposes If all - the known species of Cocos have an American origin,it is difficult to explain how the coconut alone originated in the Indian Archipelago:and some (Bailey 1927)belive that America is the home of the coconut.By some others.the millions of years old fossil coconut of New-Zealand which is of the size of an arecanut is considered to be the progenitor of the present -day coconut.The consensus of opinion.however,regarding the origin is that the Indian Archiplago should be the origit al home of the coconut.