SEEDLING TREES. 
145 
•orange pips will grow readily in damp moss, so that seedling 
trees are attainable even by those who live in towns. 1 was 
much surprised to find that tamarind stones taken out of the 
jam would grow very quickly in coco-nut fibre if kept moist 
and placed near a hall stove. The secret appears to be that the 
tamarinds are packed in barrels and hot sugar is poured over 
them, but owing to the thickness of the seed-coat, the life prin- 
ciple is not destroyed. To make the collection complete there 
should be seedlings of the other great division of plants, namely 
the monocotyledons or plants with one seed-leaf. A few date- 
stones kept in moist earth near a hall stove (if we have no 
greenhouse) will supply these specimens. The Date-palm comes 
up with one long cotyledon, and out of its centre grows the 
second leaf, and each successive one is sheathed by its prede- 
cessor after the manner of the grasses. Indian corn or Canna 
seeds grown in this way will supply other examples. 
In reading Canon Kingsley’s delightful book At Last I 
was specially interested in his graphic description of the growth 
of a young Coco-palm. He relates how a small stem, seemingly 
helpless and soft as a baby’s finger, pushes its way through 
one of the three black marks at one end of the coco-nut and 
grows and hardens into what will be a stem. The roots pierce 
through the hard outer covering of the nut, and in time a young 
palm tree is developed and feeds upon the milk and substance 
of the nut, much as an embryo chicken is nourished by the yolk 
within the egg. Now I much desired to see this curious growth 
with my own eyes. I could not go to the West Indies as 
Kingsley did, and watch the baby nuts in all the stages of their 
growth, but I thought it would be possible to obtain a newly 
imported coco-nut, which might be coaxed to grow in my' warm- 
est stove house. 
On making enquiries I found that the fruit importers often 
throw aside coco-nuts that are beginning to sprout as being 
unsaleable, they being known in the trade as “growers.” This 
was delightful news, and before long, for a few shillings I was 
able to obtain a huge nut with a promising little “ baby’s 
finger ” of a shoot appearing at one end. My gardener placed 
the nut upright in a pot of good loamy soil, leaving the end 
where the shoot was, three or four inches above the earth, and 
kept it well watered in moist heat of not less than 70° Fah. 
In a few weeks the roots began to find their way through the 
outer husk into the soil, the shoot grew into a huge green leaf, 
and for eight years I watched the growth of my big child with 
great delight. When this palm was eight feet high it was sent 
to several flower shows, and gained some prizes as a well- 
grown specimen. The Coco-palm is, I must own, a very un- 
Avieldy plant, taking up more space than can usually be spared 
in a greenhouse, and, sad to relate, my cherished specimen was 
at last “ helped not to live ” by a gardener who had become 
heartily tired of the trouble of re-potting and tending such a 
huge plant. 
Eliz.\ Brightwex. 
