The stems of this genus are lofty, generally cylindrical and smooth. The leaves are large and regularly pinnate. The spadix is simply branched, and the fruit is ovate oblong, and with an outer fibrous covering. Eighteen species of _Cocos_ are known, seventeen being natives of South America, principally of Brazil, while one only, the well-known Cocoa-nut, is a native of the Old World, though it is now universally cultivated in every part of the tropics. Few species of the genus are found in the Amazon district. They appear to prefer drier and more elevated countries, some of them reaching an altitude of near 8000 feet above the sea. [Illustration: Pl. XLVIII. W. Fitch lith. Ford & West Imp. COCOS NUCIFERA. Ht. 60 Ft. ] PLATE XLVIII. COCOS NUCIFERA, _Linnæus_. Coqueiro, _Portuguese_. The Cocoa-nut. The stem of this well-known palm is very smooth, seldom quite erect, and often much thicker at the bottom. The leaves are large, terminal and regularly pinnate. The leaflets are rigid, and spread out very flat on each side of the midrib. From the sheathing bases of the petioles grows a compact fibrous material resembling in texture the spathe of the Bussú. The spadices are produced from among the leaves, and are large and simply branched. The fruits are very large, and have a dense fibrous external covering over the well-known cocoa-nut. This tree is not a native of South America, but as it is generally cultivated in every part of the tropics, I have given a figure of it. Its peculiar characteristic is the rigidity of its leaves, which curve or droop very slightly, and the leaflets spread out with remarkable flatness and regularity. The stem also is rather massive in accordance with the immense weight of fruit which it produces, and the whole tree, though exceedingly handsome, has not that light and feathery appearance which it is often represented as possessing. It is not impossible, however, that it may have acquired by its naturalization in America an aspect differing somewhat from its characteristic features when growing on the sea-shore, on the coral islands of India and the Pacific. There it is of the greatest utility to man. It supplies food and drink and oil. Its fibres are woven into cordage and matting, and it even furnishes animal as well as vegetable food, herds of swine being fed and fattened entirely on its fruit. On the banks of the Amazon, on the contrary, we see at once that it is in a foreign land. It flourishes indeed with great luxuriance, but no part of it is applied to any useful purpose, the fruit only being consumed as an occasional luxury. In the towns and larger villages where the Portuguese have settled it has been planted, but among the Indians of the interior it is still quite unknown. LIST OF THE PALMS DESCRIBED IN THIS WORK, WITH THEIR NATIVE NAMES AND USES.