216 THE COCAL. 



usual coco-leaf. But long ere this, from the butt of the 

 white plumule, just outside the nut, white threads of root 

 have struck down into the sand ; and so the nut lies, chained 

 to the ground by a bridge-like chord, vvdiich drains its albu- 

 men, through the monkey's eye, into the young plant. After 

 a while a few months, I believe the draining of the nut is 

 complete ; the chord dries up I know not how, for I had 

 neither microscope nor time w^herewith to examine and 

 parts ; and the little plant, having got all it can out of its 

 poor wet-nurse, casts her ungratefully off to wither on the 

 sand ; while it grows up into a stately tree, which will begin 

 to bear fruit in six or seven years, and thenceforth continue, 

 flowering and fruiting the wdiole year round without a pause, 

 for sixty years and more, 



I think I have described this to me " miracuiuni " simply 

 enough to be understood by the non-scientific reader, if only 

 he or she have first learned the undoubt-ed fact known, I 

 find, to very few " educated " English people that the coco- 

 palm which produces coir-rope, and coco-nuts, and a hundred 

 other useful things, is not the same plant as the cacao-bush 

 which produces chocolate, nor anything like it. I am sorry 

 to have to insist upon this fact : but till Professor Huxley's 

 dream and mine is fulfilled ; and our schools deign 

 to teach, in the i^tervals of Latin and Greek, some slight 

 knowledge of this planet, and of those of its productions 



