Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/359

311 As new leaves spring from the head of the ascending trunk, the oldest and consequently lowest are fading and dropping off. Each, as it falls, leaves a ridge upon the trunk, which assists the climber in reaching the fruit. The blossoms of the cocoanut spring from the trunk and open amid the bases of the lower leaves; as the tree sends forth a succession of blossoms every few weeks, the fruit is found upon it in every stage of maturity at the same time, from the blossom and the cluster of pretty little green nuts not larger than plums, to the full-grown fruit as large as a man's head, hanging from a tough stalk and ready to be plucked. Looking at the sandy and arid soil from which this noble pile of vegetable life springs, we wonder at its growth, but it is in such soil that it is most at home.

“The righteous," says the Psalmist, “shall flourish as the palm-tree;" his head shall be green, his trunk full of sap, his blossoms setting, and his fruit ripening, when all around is parched, arid, and waste. And why? Because, as the palm-tree sends down its roots twenty or even thirty feet beneath the sandy surface, drawing nourishment from the unseen waters flowing there; so the true spiritual Christian,