chemy of nature. It is as unwise to be
always saying to oneself, 'Into what pigeon-hole of my brain ought I
to put this fact, and what conclusion ought I to draw from it?' as
to ask your teeth how they intend to chew, and your gastric juice
how it intends to convert your three courses and a dessert into
chyle. Whether on a Scotch moor or in a tropic forest, it is well
at times to have full faith in Nature; to resign yourself to her, as
a child upon a holiday; to be still and let her speak. She knows
best what to say.

And yet I could not altogether do it that day. There was one class
of objects in the forest which I had set my heart on examining, with
all my eyes and soul; and after a while, I scrambled and hewed my
way to them, and was well repaid for a quarter of an hour's very
hard work.

I had remarked, from the camp, palms unlike any I had seen before,
starring the opposite forest with pale gray-green leaves. Long and
earnestly I had scanned them through the glasses. Now was the time
to see them close, and from beneath. I soon guessed (and rightly)
that I was looking at that Palma de Jagua, {246} which excited--and
no wonder--the enthusiasm of the usually unimpassioned Humboldt.
Magnificent as the tree is when its radiating leaves are viewed from
above, it is even more magnificent when you stand beneath it. The
stem, like that of the Coconut, usually curves the height of a man
ere it rises in a shaft for fifty or sixty feet more. From the
summit of that shaft springs a crown--I had rather say, a fountain--
of pinnated leaves; only eight or ten of them; but five-and-twenty
feet long each. For three-fourths of their length they rise at an
angle of 45 degrees or more; for the last fourth they fall over,
till the point hangs straight down; and each leaflet, which is about
two feet and a half long, falls over in a similar curve, completing
the likeness of the whole to a fountain of water, or a gush of
rockets. I stood and looked up, watching the innumerable curled
leaflets, pale green above and silver-gray below, shiver and rattle
amid the denser foliage of the broad-leaved trees; and then went on
to another and to another, to stare up again, and enjoy the mere
shape of the most beautiful plant I had ever beheld, excepting
always the Musa Ensete, from Abyssinia, in the Palm-house at Kew.
Truly spoke Humboldt, of this or a closely allied species, 'Nature
has lavished eve