274 EVERGREEN LEAVES. 



from the blossom burl to the ripened fruit. Not so 

 with the tropical fruits. The trees which produce 

 them have no winter of repose, and therefore the 

 progress of their fructification is much less rapid. 

 Generally speaking, they remain two years on the 

 twigs, and thus they enjoy both the dry season and 

 the wet ; and in all cases where they do so, we find 

 that they are provided with means of protection from 

 the intense action of the sun ; and even when they 

 come more rapidly to maturity, we still find the 

 shining rind or capsule. Even if there is a shell, and 

 that a hard and tough one, we find an external pro- 

 tection, as in the coire which is between the ex- 

 ternal rind of the cocoanut and the shell ; and, thus 

 protected, the milky juice of the nut is very cool and 

 refreshing. 



Even in the cold countries, if the leaf or the fruit 

 has to bear both the summer and winter, we have 

 generally the shining epidermis and the shining rind. 

 The leaves of all the evergreen pines, and cypresses, 

 and yews, and the whole tribe of the conifera, are 

 smooth, while those of the deciduous larch and tax- 

 odium are not. It is true that the leaves of many 

 of what we call evergreens are just as unusual as 

 those of the lime and the mulberry, the latter of 

 which is the last to come and the first to go ; but 

 still they summer and winter on the tree : there are 

 always two successions wholly or partly upon it; 

 and the fall of the leaf with such trees is in the 

 summer. The common juniper is almost the only 

 native berry which we have that lasts more than 

 one season upon the bush, and it has the firm rind 

 and some of the other characters of those that remain 

 for two seasons in warmer countries. 



The water-melon is perhaps one of the most re- 

 markable instances that we have of the power of 

 tropical vegetables to obtain moisture in the ex- 

 treme of drought, and cold in the very violence of 

 heat. In the Indian desert between the valley of the 



