Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/134

* COCKBOACH. 104 COCOANTJT. ogy Bulletin Jf, new series (Washington, 1890) ; also Maill and Denny, The Structure and Life Uistory of the (JocUroach (London, 1887). COCKS, RiciiAKD. A grocer and merchant- adveiitviier of Coventry, Kngland. He was one of tlie charter members of the East India Com- pany (IGOO), merchant at Bayonne, France (1603- 08), and one of the seven Englislimen who accom- panied Capt. John Saris to Japan, on the first voyage of Englishmen thither. He established the British factory on the island of Hirado in Uil3, and began June 1, 1615, to keep a journal, vvliich is now of the greatest value as a contribu- tion to the history of Japan and the foreigners there during the first quarter of the century, and as a picture of manners and customs. The Diary ends iMarch 24, 1022. The great hope of the Eng- lish was to open commerce with China, but they could not successfully compete with the Dutch, who undersold them, and in the end starved them out of tlie country. In April, 1623, the dissolu- tion of the English factory was decided upon, and Cocks and the other Englishmen arrived at Batavia .January' 27, 1024. Cocks made many travels through Japan, even to Yedo, meeting lyeyasu and many native notables and the Korean Embassy. He introduced white potatoes into Japan from Java, and 'Java potato' is still the name a])plied to this tuber by the Japanese. The diary of Richard Cocks, carefully edited and aimotated by Edward ISIaunde Thompson, with introd)iction and inde.x, was published in two handsome volumes by the Hakluyt Society (Lon- don, 1883). COCKSCOMB (from its crest, resembling the coud) of a cock), Celosia cristata. An annual plant of the natural order Amarantacea;, a native of the tropics, and formerly much grown in greenhouses and gardens. It grows with an up- right stem, which becomes flattened upward, divides, expands, and forms a sort of wavy ciest, covered with pointed bracts, and bearing on its surface many very small flowers. There are both tall and dwarf forms, and a number of colors of each. The plant is of easy cultivation. See Ajiaraxtii. COCK'S-FOOT GRASS. See Orchard Grass. COCKSPUR GRASS. See Bur Grass. COCKSPTIR THORN. See Crat.isgus. COCKSWAIN. See Coxswain. COCK'TON, Hexry (1807-53). An English humorous novelist, born in London. His w^orks, of which Valriiiine Vox, the Tentriloijuist (1840), is the best, were very successful in their day. f^tnnlc}/ Thome was illustrated by so distin- guished a trio as George Cruikshank, Alfred Crowquill. and .John Leech. COCLES, koTclez. Horatius, 'the one-eyed.' One of the mythical heroes of ancient Rome. Aided by Lartius and Herminius, he defended the Sublician Bridge against a great army under Lars Porsena, keeping the enemy at bay until the Romans behind them destroyed the bridge. When the bridge was about to fall. Codes sent his two companions back; and when it had fallen, sheath- ing his sword and praying the river to favor him. he plunged in and swam safely to the shore. He received for a reward as much land as he could draw a plow around in a day, and a statue in the Comitium. No hero was held in higher honor, and Roman writers never wearied of tell- ing what Macaulay repeats in his spirited Lays of Ancient Home, "How well Horatius kept the bridge, in the brave days of old." COCOA, kr/ko. See Cacao. COCOA BUTTER. A pure white solid fat, obtained from the seeds of Theobroma Cacao, liaving a specific gravity of .945 to .052. It is used in cosmetics and other pharmaceutical preparations, and in the manufacture of con- fectionery. See Cacao; Oils. COCOANUT, or COCONUT (Fr. coco, Gk. KovKi, kuuki, cocoa-tree, from Ane. Egypt, kuku, cocoa-tree). The well-known fruit of a species of palm {Vocos nucifera), perhaps originally a native of the Indian coasts and South Sea Isl- ands, althougli there is evidence of its prehistoric occurrence on the west coast of Central and South America. (For illustration, see Plate of Palms.) It is now dift'used over all tropical regions. The cocoa nut palm belongs to a genus having pinnate leaves, and male and female flowers on the same tree, the female flowers at the base of each spadix. There are about 30 known species, nearly all of which are natives of South America. Many of the species prefer dry and somewhat elevated dis- tricts. The cocoanut palm, on the contrary, is seldom found at any considerable distance from the seacoast, except where it has been introduced by man, and generally succeeds best in sandy soil near the sea. It is always one of the first of the larger plants to establish itself in the low islands of the Pacific Ocean, as soon as there is soil enough. It has a cylindrical stem, about 2 feet in diameter, and from 60 to 100 feet high, with many rings marking the place of former leaves, and bearing at its summit a crown of from 16 to 20 leaves, which generally curve down- ward, and are from 12 to 20 feet in length, with numerous leaflets, 2 to 3 feet long. The flowers proceed from within a large pointed spathe; the fruit grows in short racemes, which bear, in favorable situations, from 5 to 15 nuts; and 10 or 12 of these racemes, in different stages, may be seen at once on a tree, about 80 or 100 nuts being its ordinary annual yield. The tree bears fruit in from seven to eight years from the time of planting, and continues productive for seventy or eighty years. Of the three round, black scars at one end of the shell, the largest one through which an opening is commonly made to get out the miJk is the destined outlet of the germinat- ing embryo, which is situated there, the kernel consisting generally of the endosperm destined for its nourishment. The thick husk is remark- ably adapted to the preservation of the seed, while the nut is tossed about by the waves, until it reaches some shore far distant from that on which it grew. The cocoanut affords to the inhabitants of many tropical coasts and islands a great part of their food ; it is not only eaten as it comes from the tree, both ripe and unripe, being filled in a young state with a pleasant, milky fluid, but is also prepared in a variety of ways, as in curries, etc. The kernel of the cocoanut contains more than 70 per cent, of a fixed oil, called cocoanut oil, or cocoanut butter. The oil is itself an impor- tant article of commerce, being much employed for the manufacture of 'stearin candles,' and also of a 'marine soap' which forms a lather with