“Are there any more kinds of palm trees?” asked the children.

“Yes,” was the reply; “there are a great many members of this most useful family, but the one that will interest you most, after the date-and cocoanut-palm, is, I think, the sago-palm.”

[Illustration:  YOUNG COCOANUT TREE IN POT (Cocos nucifera).]

“Why, Miss Harson!” exclaimed Clara, in surprise; “does sago really grow on a tree?”

“It really grows in a tree—­for it is a kind of starch secreted by the tree for the use of its flowers and fruit—­and in order to obtain it the tree has to be cut down.  The pith is then taken out and cut in slices, soaked in water and roasted; and when it assumes the shape of the small globules in which we see it, it is ready for exportation.”

“Well!” said Malcolm; “I never knew that before.  We’ve learned ever so many things, Miss Harson.”

“There is one thing about the palm,” said Miss Harson, “which I have purposely left for the last—­especially as it is the last also of our trees for the present—­and that is the sacred associations which its branches have for both Jews and Christians.  The Jews were commanded on the first day of the feast of tabernacles to ’take the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, to rejoice before the Lord their God.’  The palm was a symbol of victory, and branches of it were strewn in the path of conquerors, more especially of those who had fought for religious truth.  It is the emblem of the martyr, as a conqueror through Christ.  The Sunday before Easter is called Palm Sunday because in the ancient churches leaves of palm were carried that day by worshipers in memory of those strewn in the way on the triumphal entry of the King of Zion into Jerusalem.  You will find it, Malcolm, in John.”

Malcolm read very reverently: 

“’On the next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna; Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord[27].’”

[27] John xii. 12, 13.

“Here,” said Miss Harson, “is a little hymn written on these very verses: 

     “’See a small procession slowly
       Toward the temple wind its way;
     In the midst rides, meek and lowly,
       One whom angel-hosts obey.

     “’How the shouting crowd adore him,
       Now, for once, they know their King;
     Some their garments cast before him,
       Green palm-branches others bring.

     “’Calmly, yet with holy sorrow,
       Christ permits the sacrifice. 
     Knowing well that on the morrow
       Changed will be those fickle cries.

* * * * *

     “’Children, when in prayers and praises
       Loudly we with lips adore,
     While the heart no anthem raises,
       Are not we like those of yore?