THE MYSTERY OF A COCO-NUT. 215 



one eye which is less blind than the rest ; the eye which a 

 schoolboy feels for with his knife, when he wants to 

 get out the milk. 



As the nut lies upon the sand, in shade, and rain, and heat, 

 that baby's finger begins boring its way, with unerring aim, 

 out of the weakest eve. Soft itself, vet with immense wedsj- 

 ing power, from the gradual accretion of tiny cells^ it pierces 

 the wood, and then rends riHit and left the tousrh fibrous 

 coat. Just so may be seen I have seen a large flagstone 

 lifted in a night by a crop of tiny soft toadstools wdiich have 

 suddenly blossomed up beneath it. The baby's finger pro- 

 trudes at last, and curves upward toward the light, to com- 

 mence the campaign of life : but it has meanwhile established, 

 like a good strategist, a safe base of operations in its rear, 

 from which it intends to draw supplies. Into the albuminous 

 cream which lines the shell, and into the cavity where the 

 milk once was, it throws out white fibrous vessels, which eat 

 up the albumen for it, and at last line the whole inside of 

 the shell with a white pith. The albumen gives it food 

 wherewith to grow, upward and downward. Upward, the 

 white plumule hardens into what will be a stem ; the one 

 white cotyledon which sheaths it develops into a flat, ribbed, 

 forked, green leaf, sheathing it still ; and above it fresh leaves, 

 sheathing always at their bases, begin to form a tiny crown; 

 and assume each, more and more, the pinnate form of the 



