The inhabitants of Modena possess a very large plantation of dates, and they have a legend that their prophet Mahomet once caused a tree to spring from the kernel, at his command, and to stand full grown before his followers, in all its fruitfulness and beauty.

The date harvest is expected in the East with as much anxiety as the grape vintage in the south of Europe, or the wheat harvest in the British Isles. Sometimes the crop fails, and then a universal gloom overspreads the country. The people, however, do not depend entirely on the new fruit. During ten months of the year, when no ripe dates are to be had, they live upon the date paste, which is prepared by pressing the ripe dates into a basket, and then drying them in the sun. "What is the price of dates at Mecca or Medina ?" is always the first question asked by a Bedouin Arab, who meets a passenger on the road.

An Arab woman once came to England, as nurse in a family, and remained there four years. On her return to her own land, all the neighbours gathered round to ask her questions. "What did you find there? Is it a fine country? Are the people rich? Are they happy ?" She told them that the

country was like a garden, and that the people were very rich, and had fine clothes, fine horses, and fine carriages.

On hearing this, the Arabs were fuli or envy, and became very gloomy and discontented. They were going away very much out of spirits, when the woman happened to say, "England certainly wants one thing." "What is that?" asked the Arabs eagerly.

"There is not a

single date tree in the whole country!" "Are you sure?" was the general exclamation. "Positive," said the old nurse, "I looked for nothing else all the time I was there, but I looked in vain."

Upon this the Arabs changed their minds in an instant, and instead of envy, felt the greatest pity for the poor English, and only wondered how they could exist in a country where there were no date trees.

Before I go any further, I wish you to notice the wise and benevolent arrangement of Providence in causing the palm to grow without any labour on the part of man. In those hot climates he is incapable of exertion, and nature has, therefore, provided him with everything he requires by giving him this noble tree.

At the mouth of the river Orinoco, in South

America, is an immense plain, called the Llanos. Part of the year, it is a dreary and barren

.*

desert, and the people who inhabit it could not live without the fan palm ;* indeed the whole nation depend upon this one tree for support. Before

the blossoms expand, the pith of the stem contains a kind of meal, which is made into thin cakes and eaten. The sap, when fermented, becomes sweet wine, and the fruit, which is shaped like a fir cone, affords a most nutritious focd.

The shade of the tree keeps the ground near it quite moist, and prevents the little pools of water from being dried up, except in excessive heat. For this reason the Indians believe that it mysteriously attracts water to its roots.

Besides providing the natives with food, the fan palm also yields them a secure shelter when the river has overflowed its banks. They suspend their mats in the trees, roof them partially with clay, and live there, like so many monkeys. While the flood lasts they can never come down, so that they light their fires and make themselves as comfortable as circumstances will permit.

Travellers who are sailing up the river are * Mauritia.

often very much startled at the sight of smoke rising from the top of the palm trees, and to see the light of the fires, which appear to be suspended, no one knows how, in the air.

Mid rocks, and sands, and barrenness,

How beautiful to see

The wild palm in its desert dress

The solitary tree!

Alone amid the silent wild,

It rears its spreading crest,

The boundless desert's favoured child,
In constant verdure drest.

An emblem of our faith it stands,
A bright Oasis in the sands,

With hand-like leaves against the sky,
Pointing to immortality!

Chapter the Seventeenth.

THE PALMS (continued)-THE COCOA-NUT.

I DARE say the cocoa-nut* will be more familiar to you than the date: for who does not know its sweet kernel, and its pleasant milky juice?

You must also have noticed the three spots on its hard shell, that children sometimes call its eyes and mouth. Now the fruit is threelobed, or contains three cells, in each of which is a seed; but only one seed ever arrives at perfection, and the other two cells come to nothing. This is the reason why you find two of the spots quite hard, and the other, where the plant would have come out, so soft that you can push your finger through it.

Besides its hard shell, the seed was once inclosed in a fibrous husk, which is generally taken off before it comes to market. This is a kind of outer wall, and is quite necessary for its protection, because the cocoa-nut, like many

* Cocos nucifera.