CLIMATE AND HORTICULTURE OF NEW ENGLAND. 17 



before the blue-bird — harbinger of spring — is heard, it ma}- be 

 tapped, and its sap, identical in composition with the juice of 

 tropic cane, produces a peculiar sugar well known to us all. I 

 have tasted it when sent to me in foreign lands, and its wild flavor 

 has so brought back the odor of the forests of my native hills, that, 

 sick for home, I have stood in tears upon the alien strand. 



The natural emigration of plants is to kindlier soils, or to those 

 climates that offer favorable conditions of growth. The most 

 remarkable case of emigration is that attributed to the Cocoa 

 Palm. Its original country is supposed to be Cejlon, where, on 

 the coast of Colombo, there are vast groves, scarcely interrupted 

 by other trees. These forests of palm are of immemorial antiquitj' ; 

 from this, or from the similar coast of Malabar, the great nut, 

 falling into the water, is borne on the currents of the Pacific. Its 

 germ of life and the albuminous matter within are protected bj' its 

 rough shell ; it may float for months, perhaps for years, until 

 washed by the surf upon the sand of a coral island ; here it sinks 

 into the sand — in darkness, moisture, and heat ; it swells, sprouts, 

 and grows ; the albumen of the inner shell nourishes the root ; it 

 begins as a single leaf, and at length it stands a mighty column, 

 taller than the mast of a great admiral, bearing aloft the glor}' of 

 its leaves and its centre of continuous flowers, the crowned monarch 

 of the vegetable kingdom. Thus has the palm been distributed 

 to all parts of the tropical world reached by the currents of the 

 ocean. 



Seeds that are winged are carried by tlie wind, that bloweth 

 where it listeth ; others are disseminated by birds. Some attach 

 themselves to the hair or fur of animals, and so move about the 

 world. We cannot tell why, when we cut oflf a forest of pines, 

 oaks spring in their place ; or why, from fallow lands, a forest of 

 walnut should be evolved as from the inner consciousness of the 

 earth. Our Massachusetts soil probably received all its share of 

 plants that would survive upon it ; it was kind to a rich variety 

 of arborescent species, its flora containing a larger number than 

 any other region of similar extent in the north temperate zone. 

 The Appalachian flora, in which ours is included, has in a compara- 

 tively small area twice as mau}^ species of trees as grow naturally 

 in all the Continent of Europe ; but if the cocoa-nuts floated on 

 ocean currents reached our chilly shores, they never remained over 

 winter. Our fathers soon found that the earth yielded its increase 

 only to the hand of toil, and set themselves early to the great 



