Ever Heard

of a Coconut Pearl?

|N November 7, 1946, there ap f peared in the Fiji Times an article entitled “Valuable reaks of Nature,” written by Dr. , M. Stevenson, MD, PhD, FRS. iquiry showed that Dr. Stevenson is not a resident of Fiji; and a ggestion that he might have been iving a joke at the expense of the iwspaper was coldly refuted by the dy in charge at the editorial office.

One part of the article discussed e Coconut Pearl. If the state ents made are facts, we still have discover a man who can verify em. Here (in part) is the state ent:— ‘ln addition . . , there is a pearl rmed by Nature which is rarely und, and which, when it does me to light, commands a very gh price in any market. It is one the most beautiful creations of iture known to man, and as nuine in every way as the salt iter oyster pearl.

How is it formed? By the same pe of process which forms the It-water oyster pearl. Everyone 10 has lived in a coconut country lows that in one end of each conut there are three round dark ots, through one of which access n be gained to the “milk” inside, r the filling of that hole is soft id easily pierced . . . should that closed, the shoot must turn back ion itself and subsist on its own leat” until it dies.

Occasionally—very occasionally, is true —this hole is not fficiently soft . . . and the young oot, turning back, sets up an ute irritation within, in exactly e same way in which irritation irts in a pearl oyster.

The result is the same in each se. Nature, in order to heal the ot, produces a sort of fluid which wrapped round the place, and lich, as growth progresses, in cases in size and hardness until a arl is formed.

Every man who knows this (and ere are not very many) is always . the watch for just such a freak it, if it is his business to handle em. ‘Needless to say, if he finds the itives of the district ignorant of is he does not enlighten them.

'lf one could read the secret of e disease and apply it to a large imber of trees, the proportion of conut pearls would be very large id run to an enormous value. ‘lt is probably due to some .emical reaction which takes place the mud in which the roots ek their nourishment, and rough them the tree becomes oculated. ‘The writer of this article lived r a considerable time on the alabar Coast of India, one of the

most extensive coconut-producing districts on the globe, and has seen some very fine specimens of the elephant pearls.’ o* , O much for Dr. Stevenson s article. The memory of this ■was brought to mind by a more recent Nature Note by I. W. T.

Munro, in the Auckland Star, on elephant pearls.

Mr. Munro discusses a letter received from Mr. D. J. G. Hennessy

of Nelson, NZ, drawing attention to his book, “Green Aisles,” In this book Mr. Hennessy discusses ele phant pearls—not very beautiful to look at, being dull, watery, pinky pearl in hue, and rarely bigger than a pepper com. They are found only in an elephant’s diseased tusk, and, according to Mr, Hennessy, ‘appear to be produced by the reaction of the pulp to disease or injury.’ He admits that they are a great

rarity.-