Of bananas in bountiful bunches,

And melons as big as your hats,

Black currants, bananas in bunches,

And cocoa nuts, mothers of mats—

For of science if you are a lover

You’ll know they’re the mothers of mats,

That the cocoa nut’s cortical cover

Machinery makes into mats,

Into fuscous and fibre-fringed mats.

Fun, July 20, 1867.