He states that the whole family of
coconut-palms, consisting of about 20 genera and 200 species, are all
strictly American with the exception of the rather aberrant African
oilpalm, which has, however, an American relative referred to the same
genus. The coconut is the sole representative of this group which is
connected with Asia and the Malayan region, but there is no manifest
reason why other members of the same group could not have established
themselves there, and maintained an existence under conditions, which
are not at all unfavorable to them. The only obvious reason is the
assumption already made, that the distribution was brought about by man,
and thus only affected the species, chosen by him for cultivation. That
the coconut cannot have been imported from Asia into America seems to be
the most obvious conclusion from the arguments given. It should be
briefly noted, that it was known and widely distributed in tropical
America at the time of the discovery of that continent [89] by Columbus,
according to accounts of Oviedo and other contemporary Spanish writers.
Concluding we may state that according to the whole evidence as it has
been discussed by De Candolle and especially by Cook, the coconut-palm
is of American origin and has been distributed as a cultivated tree by
man through the whole of its wide range.
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