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leaves have then perhaps attained their greatest size and are 
in the highes tluxuriance before fructification commences. (Its 
curious process has been too accurately described by Mr 
Ward and Mr Clarke to need detail here.) Of course we saw 
trees of all ages, and the nuts from the first stage when it 
looks only like a large green berry on a twisted stem, through 
all its changes to the hard conical looking nuts when fit for 
exportation, or to be cut up into the various ustensils made from 
the hard shell. To me the first act of the plant’s life is 
about as singular as any. It takes 9 or 10 months after 
planting before the germ is ready to shoot, when it ig- 
nores its parent bed and shoots away nearly 20 feet beforo it 
rises, aud each leaf requires a year's elaboration in sun and 
air before the next appears. Considerable difficulty too at- 
tends the birth of one of these trees. If the nut does not fall 
with the germ downwards, when it strikes and does not meet 
the ground to draw its sustenance from, after an ineffectual 
straggle for some few feet on the surface, it exhausts all vita- 
lity from the nut, and the heat and want of moisture finally 
destroy the vegetable baby. Every nut grown for some years 
ought to be planted to keep up what may be a connecting link 
with an antediluvian Flora, and which is unique in its kind and 
confined to such an isolated corner of the world. The texture 
of the articles made from the young unfolded spatho, are too 
well known to require description. It would certainly be a 
handsome heirloom to his children if every proprietor of even 
a small plot of ground would plant a few nuts of these trees, 
though he could not hope to reap any benefits from it, his 
children and grand children would. It wants little troublo 
like the common cocoa-nut, but it grows while he sleeps, aud 
the labour of this generation would be amply repaid in the 
next. 
“ We crossed a march over a road made expressly for the 
occasion by Mr Campbell, and up to a hut which was to be 
the base oi our future operations. We explored till pretty 
late when we onded our day by a good dinner, and slept at 
Mr Campbell’s. 
“ Next morning the Governor and hia parly started to walk 
