tion I am convinced that cocoanut-palms will rarely grow, and certainly will not bear fruit, unless attended to and kept clear of overgrowing trees.”* “A Naturalist amongst the Head-hunters, Solomon Islands.” C. M. Woodford. Amongst the Cingalese there is a saying that the cocoanut-palm will not grow out of the sound of the sea, or of human voices. Moresby informs us that, although the cocoanut is extremely plentiful along the whole of the south coast of New Guinea, and on some of the islands in Torres Straits, it does not occur anywhere along the coast of north or east tropical Australia. This cannot be due to anything either in the soil or climate, for trees planted by Europeans at Cardwell were doing well when Moresby made his observation;† “Discoveries in New Guinea and Polynesia.” Captain Moresby. we must therefore conclude that the spontaneous extension of the cocoanut is not so common as is generally supposed, and that its wide dispersion throughout the whole of the equatorial islands is mainly artificial. This view is further strengthened by the fact that the extension of the species in these seas exactly coincides with the extension of the art of agriculture. Recognising this, De Candolle has suggested that the presence of the cocoa-palm on the American coast might be due to the accidental arrival of some Polynesian natives having some of the fruit with them; but, considering the wide expanse of ocean these people would have to cross, it seems to me that this “accidental” hypothesis only removes a difficulty by substituting an improbability. Here, again, the presence of the kumara in Polynesia suggests an explanation. The cocoanut may have been transported in the same manner as the kumara, and as probably the banana also was. It is evident, however, if this was the case, this removal must have taken place at a period far more remote than that of the other species. When the ancient monuments of Polynesia come under consideration it will be seen that this is no difficulty. I have already mentioned that the botanical evidence is altogether in favour of the American origin of the cocoanut-palm, a greater number of varieties occurring in the Malay Archipelago. In the case of the breadfruit, most of the varieties are found in eastern Polynesia, the original stock belonging to the western islands. We cannot, therefore, arrive at any positive conclusion from the distribution of varieties. If the cocoanut-palm was transported from Polynesia to America as a cultivated plant, it would probably be found in cultivation on that continent instead of in a wild state, the ancient inhabitants having made little use of the fruit. Throughout Poly-