Chapter COPECK to CORCOPALI of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

when dried, which in turn will produce 25 gallons of cocoa-nut oil.”—Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 531.

1878.—It appears from Lady Brassey’s Voyage in the Sunbeam (5th ed. 248) that this word is naturalised in Tahiti.

1883.—“I suppose there are but few English people outside the trade who know what copra is; I will therefore explain:—it is the white pith of the ripe cocoa-nut cut into strips and dried in the sun. This is brought to the trader (at New Britain) in baskets varying from 3 to 20 lbs. in weight; the payment…was a thimbleful of beads for each pound of copra.…The nut is full of oil, and on reaching Europe the copra is crushed in mills, and the oil pressed from it…half the oil sold as ‘olive-oil’ is really from the cocoa-nut.”—Wilfred Powell, Wanderings in a Wild Country, p. 37.

CORAL-TREE, s. Erythrina indica, Lam., so called from the rich scarlet colour of its flowers.

[1860.—“There are…two or three species of the genus Erythrina or Coral Tree. A small species of Erythrina, with reddish flowers, is famous in Buddhist mythology as the tree around which the Devas dance till they are intoxicated in Sudra’s (?Indra’s) heaven.” Mason’s Burmah, p. 531.—McMahon, Karens of the Golden Chersonese, p. 11.]

CORCOPALI, s. This is the name of a fruit described by Varthema, Acosta, and other old writers, the identity of which has been the subject of much conjecture. It is in reality the Garcinia indica, Choisy (N. O. Guttiferae), a tree of the Concan and Canara, which belongs to the same genus as the mangosteen, and as the tree affording the gamboge. (see CAMBOJA) of commerce. It produces an agreeable, acid, purple fruit, which the Portuguese call brindões. From the seeds a fatty oil is drawn, known as kokun butter. The name if Malayal. is kodukka and this possibly, with the addition of puli, ‘acid,’ gave rise to the name before us. It is stated in the English Cyclopaedia (Nat. Hist. s.v. Garcinia) that in Travancore the fruit is called by the natives gharka pulli, and in Ceylon goraka. Forbes Watson’s ‘List of Indian Productions’ gives as synonyms of the Garcinia cambogia tree ‘karka-puliemaram?’ Tam.; ‘kurkapulie,’ Mal.; and ‘goraka-gass,’ Ceyl. [The Madras Gloss. calls it Mate mangosteen, a ship term meaning ‘cookroom mangosteen’; Can. murginahuli, ‘twisted tamarind’; Mal. punampuli, ‘stiff tamarind.’] The Cyclopœdia also contains some interesting particulars regarding the uses in Ceylon of the goraka. But this Ceylon tree is a different species (G. Gambogia, Desrous). Notwithstanding its name it does not produce gamboge; its gum being insoluble in water. A figure of G. indica is given in Beddome’s Flora Sylvatica, pl. lxxxv. [A full account of Kokam butter will be found in Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 467 seqq.] 1510.—“Another fruit is found here fashioned like a melon, and it has divisions after that manner, and when it is cut, three or four grains which look like grapes, or birdcherries, are found inside. The tree which bears this fruit is of the height of a quince tree, and forms its leaves in the same manner. This fruit is called Corcopal; it is extremely good for eating, and excellent as a medicine.”—Varthema (transl. modified from), Hak. Soc. 167.

1578.—“Carcapuli is a great tree, both lofty and thick; its fruit is in size and aspect like an orange without a rind, all divided in lobes.…”—Acosta, Tractado, 357.

(This author gives a tolerable cut of the fruit; there is an inferior plate in Debry, iv. No. xvii.).

1672.—“The plant Carcapuli is peculiar to Malabar.…The ripe fruit is used as ordinary food; the unripe is cut in pieces and dried in the sun, and is then used all the year round to mix in dishes, along with tamarind, having an excellent flavour, of a tempered acidity, and of a very agreeable and refreshing odour. The form is nearly round, of the size of an apple, divided into eight equal lobes of a yellow colour, fragrant and beautiful, and with another little fruitlet attached to the extremity, which is perfectly round,” &c., &c.—P. Vincenzo Maria, 356.