[Illustration:  COCOANUT-PALM TREES IN SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA.]

“Certainly I will, dear,” was the reply.  “I fully intended to do so, for the cocoanut-palm is too valuable a member of the family to be passed over.  This species does not grow in Palestine, and it is not one of the trees of the Bible; its home is in the warmest countries, and it grows most luxuriantly in the islands of the tropics or near the seacoast on the main-lands.  Although its general form is similar to that of the date-palm, the foliage and fruit are quite different.  The leaves are very much broader, and they have not the light, airy look of the foliage of the date-palm.  But ’the cocoanut-palm is the most valuable of Nature’s gifts to the inhabitants of those parts of the tropics where it grows, and its hundred uses, as they are not inaptly called, extend beyond the tropics over the civilized world.  The beautiful islands of the southern seas are fringed with cocoanut-palms that encircle them as with a green and feathery belt.  The ripe nuts drop into the sea, but, protected by their husks, they float away until the tide washes them on to the shore of some neighboring island, where they can take root and grow.’”

“Wouldn’t it be nice,” said Edith, “if some would float here?”

“A great many cocoanuts float here in ships,” replied Miss Harson, “but they would not take root and grow, because the climate is not suited to them; it is too cold for them.  We cannot have tropical fruit without tropical heat, and I am sure that none of us would want such a change as that.  You may sometimes see small cocoanut trees in hothouses or horticultural gardens, where they are shielded from our cold air.  The island of Ceylon, in the East Indies, is full of cocoanut-palm trees, for they are carefully cultivated by the inhabitants, and the feathery groves stretch mile after mile.  The tree shoots up a column-like stem to the height of a hundred feet, and is crowned with a tuft of broad leaves about twelve feet long.  The flowers are yellowish white and grow in clusters, and the seed ripens into a hard nut which in its fibrous husk is about the size of an infant’s head.”

“I’ve seen the nut in its husk,” said Malcolm, “when papa took me down to the wharf where the ships come in.  There were lots of cocoanuts, and some of ’em had their coats on.”

“This brown husk,” continued his governess, “is a valuable part of the nut, for the toughest ropes and cables are made of its fibres, as well as the useful brown matting so generally used to cover offices and passages.  Brushes, nets and other domestic articles are also manufactured from the husk.  Scarcely any other tree in the world is so useful to man or contributes so much to his comfort as the cocoanut-palm.  Food and drink are alike obtained from it.  The kernel of the nut is an article of diet, and can be prepared in many ways.  The native is almost sustained by it, and in Ceylon it forms a part of nearly every dish.  The spathe that encloses the yet-unopened flowers is made to yield a favorite beverage called palm-wine, or, more familiarly, ‘toddy.’  When the fresh juice is used, it is an innocent and refreshing drink; but when left to ferment, it intoxicates, and is the one evil result from the bountiful gifts of the tree.  Oil is prepared in great quantities from the nuts and used for various purposes.”