assurance that
the desired water must be in motion and that land near stagnant water,
or marsh land, is unsuitable to the plant.

It may frequently be observed that trees will be found growing
fairly thriftily upon mounds or hummocks, in places invaded by
flood or other waters which, by reason of backing or damming up,
have become stagnant. An examination of the roots of an overthrown
tree in such a locality will show that all of those in the submerged
zone have perished and rotted away, but that such is the vitality and
recuperative energy of the tree that it has thrown out a new feeding
system in the dryer soil of the mound immediately surrounding the stem,
which has been sufficient to successfully carry on the functions of
nutrition, but altogether ineffective to anchor the tree securely,
or to prevent its prostration before the first heavy gale.

While this phase of the question will receive more attention when
we come to consider the chemistry of suitable manures, it may be
said that, although analysis of the cocoanut ash derived from
beach-grown nuts shows a larger percentage of those salts that
abound in sea water than those grown inland, yet the equal vigor,
vitality, and fruitfulness of the latter simply confirm the plant's
exceptional adaptability to environment and ability to take up and
decompose, without detriment, the salts of sea or brackish waters. As
a victim to the maritime idea, the writer in 1886 planted, far inland,
several hundred nuts in beds especially devised to reproduce littoral
conditions; shore gravel, sea sand, broken shells, and salt derived
from sea water being used in preparing the seed beds. The starting
growth was unexcelled. Then came a long period of yellowing decline
and almost suspended animation, ultimately followed by a complete
restoration to health and vigor. The early excellent growth was
due to the fact that the first nourishment of the plant is entirely
derived from the endosperm, and careful lifting of the young plants
disclosed the fact that recovery from their moribund condition was,
in every instance, coincident with the time that the roots first
succeeded in working through the unpalatable mess about them into
the outlying good, sweet soil.

The exposure of the plantation is an important consideration, and
a maritime site should be selected in preference to one far inland,
unless it be on an open, unprotected flat, exposed to the influence
of every breeze or the fie