to grow, upward and downward.
Upward, the white plumule hardens into what will be a stem; the one
white cotyledon which sheaths it develops into a flat, ribbed,
forked, green leaf, sheathing it still; and above it fresh leaves,
sheathing always at their bases, begin to form a tiny crown; and
assume each, more and more, the pinnate form of the usual coco-leaf.
But long ere this, from the butt of the white plumule, just outside
the nut, white threads of root have struck down into the sand; and
so the nut lies, chained to the ground by a bridge-like chord, which
drains its albumen, through the monkey's eye, into the young plant.
After a while--a few months, I believe--the draining of the nut is
complete; the chord dries up--I know not how, for I had neither
microscope nor time wherewith to examine--and parts; and the little
plant, having got all it can out of its poor wet-nurse, casts her
ungratefully off to wither on the sand; while it grows up into a
stately tree, which will begin to bear fruit in six or seven years,
and thenceforth continue, flowering and fruiting the whole year
round without a pause, for sixty years and more.

I think I have described this--to me--'miraculum' simply enough to
be understood by the non-scientific reader, if only he or she have
first learned the undoubted fact--known, I find, to very few
'educated' English people--that the coco-palm which produces coir-
rope, and coconuts, and a hundred other useful things, is not the
same plant as the cacao-bush which produces chocolate, nor anything
like it. I am sorry to have to insist upon this fact: but till
Professor Huxley's dream--and mine--is fulfilled, and our schools
deign to teach, in the intervals of Latin and Greek, some slight
knowledge of this planet, and of those of its productions which are
most commonly in use, even this fact may need to be re-stated more
than once.

We re-embarked again, and rowed down to the river-mouth to pick up
shells, and drink in the rich roaring trade breeze, after the
choking atmosphere of the lagoon; and then rowed up home, tired, and
infinitely amused, though neither Manati nor Boa-constrictor had
been seen; and then we fell to siesta; during which--with Mr.
Tennyson's forgiveness--I read myself to sleep with one of his best
poems; and then went to dinner, not without a little anxiety.

For M--- (the civiliser of Montserrat) had gone off early, with
mule, cutlass, a