The Cocoanut Palm. 93 
The palm-tree has not great far-extending roots like those of 
the exogenous tree, nor has it props like the pandanus; but 
its roots are weak and thin,'and- were the palm-tree plants to 
be too ambitious—to build on too long—they would make 
their edifice top-heavy, and bring it to the ground. But they 
do not. They know how much the roots will bear—so much 
they build, and then the germ of life ceases to exist: since 
they cannot grow upward, they will not grow at all; for 
they cannot live and not grow, they cannot grow and not 
ascend. 
The cocoanut-palm is remarkable for the crookedness of its 
stem; it often leans over bodily at a considerable angle, and 
exhibits, besides, a great variety of curves, and even tolerably 
sharp angles. 
In addition to this crookedness of the stem—supposed to 
be the result of the wind and the nature of the tree acting in 
opposition; the former throwing it out of the perpendicular, 
the latter striving to attain uprightness—I have observed that 
this palm always emerges from the ground with a curve. This 
is particularly noticeable in the young trees, although the old 
ones never lose the peculiar appearance that this youthful fancy 
of theirs gives:to them.: I have never heard any reason as- 
signed why the cocoanut-palm should rise with this invariable 
curve, but no doubt the shape of the nut has something to do 
with it, for the nut when it falls from the tree lies naturally 
lengthwise on the ground; and so the young shoots, which 
come out of one of the holes at the end, grow first in a 
horizontal direction ; the one then curves upward and forms the 
tree, the other downward and forms the roots. This upward 
curve that the first one takes is then, probably, what gives 
to this species of palm that peculiar form of stem which I have 
been speaking of. 
The drawings of this palm are often very incorrect. They 
are frequently portrayed with stems as straight and upright as 
