cocoa2 (koko)

[A corruption of cacao, by confusion with cocoal, coco.] coco.] 1. A corrupted form of cacao.-2. The ground kernels of the cacao or chocolate-tree. See cacao and Theobro ma.- Brazilian cocoa, guarana. - Cocoa-nibs, -shells. cocoanut, coconut (kōkō-nut), n. [More correctly coconut (also in commercial use (in England) cokernut ); See cacao . The most precious inheritance of a Singhalese is his ancestral garden of coco- nuts . Sir J. E. Tennent, Ceylon, vii. 2. Cocoanut matting. See matting.-Double cocoanut, or coco - de - mer, the fruit of a remarkable palm, Lodoicea Sec hell arum, found native only on the Seychelles, in the Indian ocean, and growing to a height of from 50 to 100 feet, with a crown of gigantic palmate leaves. The fruit often weighs 40 or 50 pounds, and usually contains 4 nuts, which are 18 inches long, lobed at each end. Before maturing the inside of the nut is soft and eatable. The hard black shell is carved into ornaments, the young leaves yield an admirable material for baskets and plaited work, and the older leaves are used for partitions and thatching. The nuts, driven acro the sea by the monsoons, were known in India long before the discovery of the tree which produced them, and wonderful stories were current respect ing their origin. Sea-cocoanut, of Jamaica, the fruit of a species of Man i car i a, a palm of Trinidad and the South American coast, often washed ashore upon that island. cocoanut-crab (kōkō-nut-krab), n. A crustacean, Birgus latro, related to the hermit-crabs, inhabiting certain islands of the East Indian archipelago and Pacific ocean. It lives to a large extent on cocoanuts. With its strong claws it peels off which extracts the kernel. lives in deep burrows the husk, and makes an opening in the shell through is diurnal in habit. cocquel