[1] As a matter of nomenclature it is unfortunate that the corrupt
form "cocoa," from a confusion with the coco-nut (q.v.), has become
stereotyped. When introduced early in the 18th century it was as a
trisyllable _co-co-a_, a mispronunciation of _cacao_ or _cocoa_, the
Spanish adaptation from the Mexican _cacauatl_.
COCO DE MER, or DOUBLE COCO-NUT, a palm, _Lodoicea Sechellarum_, which
is a native of the Seychelles Islands. The flowers are borne in enormous
fleshy spadices, the male and female on distinct plants. The fruits,
which are among the largest known, take ten years to ripen; they have a
fleshy and fibrous envelope surrounding a hard nut-like portion which is
generally two-lobed, suggesting a large double coco-nut. The contents of
the nut are edible as in the coco-nut. The empty fruits (after
germination of the seed) are found floating in the Indian Ocean, and
were known long before the palm was discovered, giving rise to various
stories as to their origin.
COCOMA, or CUCAMAS, a tribe of South American Indians living on the
Maranon and lower Huallaga rivers, Peru. In 1681, at the time of the
Jesuit missionaries' first visit, they had the custom of eating their
dead and grinding the bones to a powder, which was mixed with a
fermented liquor and drunk. When expostulated with by the Jesuits they
said "it was better to be inside a friend than to be swallowed up by the
cold earth." They are a provident, hard-working people, partly
Christianized, and bolder than most of the civilized Indians. Their
languages show affinity to the Tupi-Guarani stock.
COCO-NUT[1] PALM (_Cocos nucifera_), a very beautiful and lofty
palm-tree, growing to a height of from 60 to 100 ft., with a cylindrical
stem which attains a thickness of 2 ft. The tree terminates in a crown
of graceful waving pinnate leaves. The leaf, which may attain to 20 ft.
in length, consists of a strong mid-rib, whence numerous long acute
leaflets spring, giving the whole the appearance of a gigantic feather.
The flowers are arranged in branching spikes 5 or 6 ft. long, enclosed
in a tough spathe, and the fruits mature in bunches of from 10 to 20.
The fruits when mature are oblong, and triangular in cross section,
measuring from 12 to 18 in. in length and 6 to 8 in. in diameter. The
fruit consists of a thick external husk or rind of a fibrous structure,
within which is the ordinary coco-nut of commerce. The nut has a very
hard, woody shell, enclosing the nucleus or kernel, the true seed,
within which again is a milky liquid called coco-nut milk. The palm is
so widely disseminated throughout tropical countries that it is
impossible to distinguish its original habitat. It flourishes with equal
vigour on the coast of the East Indies, throughout the tropical islands
of the Pacific, and in the West Indies and tropical America. It,
however, attains its greatest luxuriance and vigour on the sea shore,
and it is most at home in the innumerable small islands of the Pacific
seas, of the vegetation of which it is eminently characteristic. Its
wide distribution, and its existence in even the smallest coral islets
of the Pacific, are due to the character of the fruit, which is
eminently adapted for distribution by sea. The fibrous husk renders the
fruit light and the leathery skin prevents water-logging. The seed will
germinate readily on the sea-shore, the seedling growing out through the
soft germ-pore on the upper end of the hard nut. The fruits dropping
into the sea from trees growing on any shores would be carried by tides
and currents to be cast up and to vegetate on distant coasts.
The coco-nut palm, being the most useful of its entire tribe to the
natives of the regions in which it grows, and furnishing many valuable
and important commercial products, is the subject of careful cultivation
in many countries. On the Malabar and Coromandel coasts of India the
trees grow in vast numbers; and in Ceylon, which is peculiarly well
suited for their cultivation, it is estimated that twenty millions of
the trees flourish. The wealth of a native in Ceylon is estimated by his
property in coco-nut trees, and Sir J. Emerson Tennent noted a law case
in a district court in which the subject in dispute was a claim to the
2520th part of ten of the precious palms. The cultivation of coco-nut
plantations in Ceylon was thus described by Sir J. E. Tennent. "The
first operation in coco-nut planting is the formation of a nursery, for
which purpose the ripe nuts are placed in squares containing about 400
each; these are covered an inch deep with sand and seaweed or soft mud
from the beach, and watered daily till they germinate. The nuts put down
in April are sufficiently grown to be planted out before the rains of
September, and they are then set out in holes 3 ft. deep and 20 to 30
ft. apart.... Before putting in the young plant it is customary to bed
the roots with soft mud and seaweed, and for the first two years they
must be watered and protected from the glare of the sun under shades
made of the plaited fronds of the coco-nut palm, or the fan-like leaves
of the palmyra." The palm begins to bear fruit from the fifth to the
seventh year of its age, each stock carrying from 5 to 30 nuts, the tree
maturing on an average 60 nuts yearly.
The uses to which the various parts of the coco-nut palm are applied in
the regions of their growth are almost endless. The nuts supply no
inconsiderable proportion of the food of the natives, and the milky
juice enclosed within them forms a pleasant and refreshing drink. The
juice drawn from the unexpanded flower spathes forms "toddy," which may
be boiled down to sugar, or it is allowed to ferment and is distilled,
when it yields a spirit which, in common with a like product from other
sources, is known as "arrack." As in other palms, the young bud cut out
of the top of the tree forms an esculent vegetable, "palm cabbage." The
trunk yields a timber (known in European commerce as porcupine wood)
which is used for building, furniture, firewood, &c.; the leaves are
plaited into cajan fans and baskets, and used for thatching the roofs of
houses; the shell of the nut is employed as a water-vessel; and the
external husk or rind yields the coir fibre, with which are fabricated
ropes, cordage, brushes, &c. The coco-nut palm also furnishes very
important articles of external commerce, of which the principal is
coco-nut oil. It is obtained by pressure or boiling from the kernels,
which are first broken up into small pieces and dried in the sun, when
they are known as copperah or _copra_. It is estimated that 1000
full-sized nuts will yield upwards of 500 lb. of copra, from which 25
gallons of oil should be obtained. The oil is a white solid substance at
ordinary temperatures, with a peculiar, rather disagreeable odour, from
the volatile fatty acids it contains, and a mild taste. Under pressure
it separates into a liquid and a solid portion, the latter,
coco-stearin, being extensively used in the manufacture of candles.
Coco-nut oil is also used in the manufacture of marine soap, which forms
a lather with sea-water. Coir is also an important article of commerce,
being in large demand for the manufacture of coarse brushes, door mats
and woven coir-matting for lobbies and passages. A considerable quantity
of fresh nuts is imported, chiefly from the West Indies, into Britain
and other countries; they are familiar as the reward of the popular
English amusement of "throwing at the coco-nuts"; and the contents are
either eaten raw or used as material for cakes, &c., or sweetmeats
("coker-nut").