We fain would have lingered on the natural products of this interesting island, to drink of the refreshing liquid furnished by the traveller-tree, and to admire the sago palms and other vegetable forms, but space forbids our dwelling longer on the natural productions of the tropics. [Footnote 30] We could have spoken of the aspects of tropical nature as it appears in Borneo, Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the Pacific ocean, but we must stop. We ought not, however, to conclude these gleanings without a brief notice of Dr. Hartwig's popular book, whose title we have placed at the head of this article. There are those who look with contempt on popular science of all kinds, and regard with undisguised aversion such compilations as the one before us. We do not share these feelings in the least degree; on the contrary, we welcome most heartily such introductions to the study of natural history. True, they may be sometimes of little scientific value, but they are very useful stepping-stones to something more solid. They are more especially intended for the young, but those of mature years may derive much profit by a perusal of many of these works, and even the naturalist may read them with pleasure and instruction. The numerous beautifully illustrated and carefully compiled works on natural history, such as the book before us, together with "The Sea and its Living Wonders," by the same writer, with Routledge's admirable "Natural History," and several of the Christian Knowledge Society's publications, which have appeared within the last few years, are an encouraging sign of the growing interest which the rising generation takes in the study of the great Creator's works, and we heartily wish them "God-speed."
[Footnote 30: In our own territory of the Seychelles Islands, 4° to 5° S., 300 miles N. E. of the great island Just alluded to, we see one of the strangest of vegetable productions, the double cocoa-nut, or Lodoicea, which was fully described by Mr. Ward in the "Journal of the Linnean Society, 1864:" "The shortest period before the tree puts forth its buds is 30 years, and 100 years must elapse before it attains its full growth. One plant in the garden at Government House, planted 15 years ago, is quite in its infancy, about 16 feet in height, but with no stem yet visible, the long leaves shooting from, the earth like the Traveler's Palm (Urania specioea), and much resembling it in shape, but much larger. Unlike the cocoa-nut trees, which bend to every gale and are never quite straight, the coco-de-mer trees are as upright as iron pillars. At the ago of 30 the trees first put forth blossoms. The female tree alone produces the nut, and is 6 feet shorter than the male, which attains a height of 100 feet. From fructification to full maturity a period of nearly 10 years elapses." But the remarkable point is the arrangement of the roots, unlike any other tree. "The base of the trunk is of a bulbous form, and this bulb fits into a natural bowl or socket about 2-1/2 feet in diameter and 1-1/2 foot in depth, narrowing to the bottom. This bowl is pierced with hundreds of small oval holes about the size of thimbles, with hollow tubes corresponding on the outside, through which the roots penetrate the ground on all sides, never, however, becoming attached to the bowl, their partial elasticity affording an almost imperceptible, but very necessary play to the parent stem when struggling against the force of violent gales. This bowl is of the same substance as the shell of the nut, only much thicker. As far as can be ascertained, it never rots or wears out. It has been found quite perfect and entire in every respect 60 years after the tree has been cut down. At Curiense many sockets are still remaining which are known to have belonged to trees cut down by the first settlers in the Island (1742)." One of these sockets is to be seen in the Museum of woods at Kew.]
From Chamber's Journal.
WINTER SIGNS.
Links upon the forehead come—
Strokes alike of time and grief,
Branches from the heart beneath
That will never bear a leaf.
Come the summer, come the spring,
Still they keep their wintry hue;
Deepening, stretching o'er the brow.
Shadows lift them into view.
Straight and crooked, right and left.
On the strong and on the weak—
Upward to the hoary head.
Downward to the hollow cheek.
Shadows from the life within,
Tarrying ere they pass away,
Plant these stems of sorrow there,
Growing in the night and day.
Light that fills the eye afresh
From some inward moving grace,
Casting from it, as a sun.
Quiet rays upon the face—
Makes these ruts of time appear
Winding, widening in their space,
Drawing loving eyes and thoughts
All their history to trace.
Whilst upheaved by a smile,
Radiant in the breast of light,
These eternal scores of grief
Tell of many an inner night.
Stories come up from their roots.
Half unfolded in their course,
Showing how a hundred pangs
Long ago became their source.
From The Lamp.
ALL-HALLOW EVE; OR, THE TEST OF FUTURITY.
BY ROBERT CURTIS.
CHAPTER XV.
Any help which old Murdock was in the habit of getting from his son upon the farm, and it was at no time of much value, either in labor or advice, had latterly dwindled down to a mere careless questioning as to how matters were going on, and his father began to fear that he was "beginning to go to the bad." Poor old man, how little of the truth he knew!