1 68 THE EVOLUTIONIST AT LARGE. 



so it is wrapped round in a mass of loose 

 knotted fibre, which breaks the fall just as a 

 lot of soft wool would do. Then, being a 

 large nut, fully stored with an abundance 

 of meat, it offers special attractions to ani- 

 mals, and consequently requires special means 

 of defence. Accordingly, its shell is ex- 

 travagantly thick, only one small soft spot 

 being left at the blunter end, through which 

 the young plant may push its head. Once 

 upon a time, to be sure, the coco-nut con- 

 tained three kernels, and had three such soft 

 spots or holes ; but now two of them are 

 aborted, and the two holes remain only in 

 the form of hard scars. The Brazil nut is 

 even a better illustration. Probably few 

 people know that the irregular angular nuts 

 which appear at dessert by that name are 

 originally contained inside a single round 

 shell, where they fit tightly together, and 

 acquire their queer indefinite shapes by 

 mutual pressure. So the South American 

 monkey has first to crack the thick external 



