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ness in the stem of the Lodoicea (different from all other Palms) requires a special arrangement to prevent the shattering of the noble trunks, nothing could be conceived of more effectually suited to the purpose than the play and rolling of the stem in this mechanical ball-and-socket "universal joint;" the roots piercing the socket, however, must possess greater toughness and flexibility than any gutta-percha-coated wire cable, to avoid being torn out of the ground, or frittered to rags, when we consider the strain put upon them by the amount of leverage from the great height of the trunks; and there are other difficulties in understanding the mode of growth and development. Did the socket nourish, and protect, and nurse up the stem, or did the stem, as it grew to maturity, elaborate and deposit the materials for the socket? The Coco-de-mer bowl is of the substance and colour of the shell of the nut; but that it can be no swollen enlargement of the nut, from which the tree has grown, is plain from the mode of germination, so fully described and figured by Sir W. J. Hooker, in Nos. 2,734 to 2,738 of the Botanical Magazine, new series. The germ rises from the sinus of the lobes of the nut, and extends itself to a considerable distance from its parent seed before it takes root. The outer extremity then penetrates into the earth and from a cleft in the thickest part near the middle, throws up the plumule, which gradually and slowly forms leaves, and grows up into the tree.

So far, then, we see no preparation for the formation of this bowl underneath, and loose from the trunk; and it seems easier to trace the mode and purpose of its growth, if it may be supposed to be formed as the tree attains age, as a sort of tuberous excrescence of agglomerated roots, which have gradually enlarged and hardened and thickened till it forms a powerful bulbose buttress, to hold firmly in the earth the towering stem with all the enormous weight it was destined to support, each drupe or fruit frequently attaining a length of eighteen inches, with a circumference of three feet, and weighing from forty to fifty pounds.

Some similar tendency of growth seems to be exhibited in another Palm, namely, the conical masses of what are "aërial roots" of the Iriartes ventricosa, of which protuberances very sonorous musical instruments are made.

There is a beautiful illustration of these sort of supplemental buttress-roots, which it is in the power of any one to watch. The Indian Corn (Zea Mays), in a favourable garden soil and aspect, will, even in England, shoot up to the height of eleven or twelve feet, its shining silky tassels of the styles waving to every breeze; but as these wither (the pollen of the upright male spikes having been shed upon them), the fecundated female spikes begin to swell, and due preparation is made for the considerable bulk and weight they are to attain to. Then may be seen little pinkish buds issuing from the joints of the stem, from an inch to fifteen inches or more above the surface of the soil; these gradually grow and anchor themselves firmly in the earth, and thus help to steady the stem, and enable it, with its ever-hardening flinty outer cuticle, to support the heavy heads of maize as the grains fill and ripen. Now, the grasses have been counted as near, though plebian, relations of the "princely Palms;" so perhaps a free pardon may be insured for thus introducing "a mere grass" into a chapter on this king of the "princely Palms," if any of my readers will turn to Longfellow's entrancing allegory of the first gift of the Maize to the Red Man, in the "Song of Hiawatha."

The object of the digression was to call attention to the nature of these supplemental, and what may be called buttress-roots, and to ask, can the curious colander-like bowl be formed of such, amalgamated, as it were, into a massive state in the course of growth? It has been suggested by a very acute observer, that the specimen at Kew may have been the base of some very old tree cut down years ago, and with all the softer internal parts decayed away.

But how, then, account for the smooth, polished hard surface of the inside of the bowl, which it is so tempting to adduce as a proof of the effect of friction from the rolling motion of the stem in its socket? Ah! there are many more clever polishers in Nature's workshops than are dreamed of in our philosophy; and how do we know what strange insects, worms, and fungi may have been at work, clipping and filing and rubbing down, bit by bit every little fibre or projecting roughness from the decaying portions of the former trunk. This charming poetic theory of the Lodoicea being rocked in a cradle of the earth, is at first sight a most plausible, ingenious, and interesting interpretation of a natural phenomenon; therefore it may appear presumptuous to say that it yet seems to want confirmation by more and closer observation of the living and growing trees. Has any one of these ever been actually examined at its base, and seen to be standing within its bowl, and yet not attached to its substance, and only fastened in the ground by the comparatively slender roots passing through the perforations of the bowl?

Various strange myths have from time to time been propagated about these wonderful trees, whose huge fruits were long considered as productions of the sea! Fit nuts indeed for Leviathan or the great serpent to crack for their dessert!

Whatever may be the merits of the conjectures which have here been offered, any visitor to Kew may admire the realities of all the wondrously elegant articles, baskets, boxes, hats, flowers, caskets, dishes, &c., &c., manufactured from the leaves, stalks, and nuts of the Lodoicea Palm, and then survey the hard "Black Cradle," and form their own opinions as to "What is it?"P. S. B.