260 
SAVANNA LE MAE. 
always a pleasant sight, for it tells of cultivation and 
human habitation in the midst of the wilderness. 
In walking through an extensive plantation of 
Cocoa-palms, such as that one which borders the 
beach to the west of Savanna le Mar, we are strongly 
reminded that we are in a land remote from home. 
It is strange to see on every side the tall straight 
stems, like slender columns, unvaried by any other 
vegetation, and to be canopied by the rigid pinnated 
fronds rustling and rattling against each other as they 
are swayed by the breeze. In common engravings 
of tropical scenery, the Cocoa-palm has frequently a 
flexuose character given to the stem which is not 
natural. A double sigmoid curve is figured, very 
graceful and pretty, to be sure, but not consistent 
with truth ; while at other times a hanging curve is 
given to it more like that of a fern springing out of 
a wall than the habit of a palm. One would sup- 
pose from these representations that the character of 
the stem was extreme flexibility, bowed and curved 
with every breath of wind.* Such, however, is far 
from the case. The Cocoa-nut frequently springs 
from the earth in a very oblique direction, but as it 
grows it soon bends into a perpendicular, and then 
shoots up like an arrow towards the sky. Its cha- 
racter is rather a rigid straightness, very little subject 
to be bent even before the strongest breeze. I have 
seen the huge fronds toss and flutter like flags, in a 
* Thus too Southey makes Madoc describe, more elegantly than 
correctly, the Cocoa-nut Palms of Mexico : — 
“ Their tresses nodding like a crested helm.” 
