Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-05-29
roURNAL, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 1878

and does it up in fine style, too. 1t is a rare
tree, and II never blossoms but once in all
its life. It is the Jalipor palm. II lives
and grows on for a great many years, hav-
ing, suppose, the largest leaves Of any tree
on earth. One Of them, one writer says, is
"large enough for an umbrella for twenty
men," Then at last il begins TO send up a
bunch of blossoms. think you would like
TO see IL in bloom. Imagine very tall tree
with crown of great fan leaves. each as
long as mothers parlor carpet then up
above the leaves a great bouquet of flowers.
How large do you suppose As big as
barrel Yes, bigger than that. As big as
this room Yes, as big as your fathers
house in Vermont, unless you lived in
larger one than the average Vermont house.
What bouquet that would be for giants
wife. A log seventy feet long for the
handle, a cup made of leaves as large as
a carpet, and then great pyramid of
flowers, say thirty or forty feet high,
and twenty or thirty feet in diameter at
the bottom. She would have TO be pretty
large giantess, wouldn't she 2 The tree
blossoms but once, and then dies. But let
us leave the flowers and look at and taste
some more of the fruit. We had mangoes
and oranges. and bananas, and pineapples
for dinner-delicious oranges, too, and the
pineapples, that grow like lilies all over the
ground under the trees, are very sweet and
juicy, If they are allowed to ripen WELL But
here are pomegranates, and pawpaws, like
muskmelons, growing on trees, and "pomple-
NOSES" or great sour oranges, as big as Mel
lies head, and guavas for jelly, and tam
arinds for acid drink.
But oh, see that tree How you do laugh
at it. Tom says it is an oak tree and at
distance it looks as If it were all hung over
with black iron kettles, and tubs, and pals.
But it is "jack tree and those are its
fruit. They look like great green burrs,
something like these beech-nut burrs in Yer
mont. But they grow right out of the trunk
of the tree and out of the great branches, not
on the little twigs as beech-nuts do. First,
a little bud comes out of the rough bark,
and it grows till it is perhaps two or three
inches long, then the end of it swells, till it
becomes one Of these great burrs. How
large do you guess Not as big as house,
but as big as a barrel, perhaps. Here is
one almost touching the ground. There is
another up so high that we can stand under
it, and the great branches are all covered
with them. One of them will weigh as
much as eighty pounds. When it is ripe if
we cut off the outside we shall find it full of
yellow pulp, that you will call very delicious
after you get used to it. But where is the
blossom, Tom2 Why, it is kind of a fig,
and like the fig it has its blossoms inside of
what we call the fruit. 1t is not exactly the
fruit of the fig which we eat, but bag
which contains a great many fruits in it.
| suppose this is the poor flower of which
the poet writes as doomed to blush un.
seen." There is another tree here like the
| fig also-the breadfruit tree. Its frnit is
all white inside, and when cooked it looks
and tastes something like bread. God has
made it to grow in those parts of the earth
where they cannot get wheat, or corn, or po
tatoes. Is he not great and good God to
make the great trees bear such quantities Of
food for these thousands of wicked heather
There is one other kind of fruit, of which
| must tell you. IT'S the cocoanut But
want to write whole letter about that, sc
I'll keep it for next time.
Children, did any of you think You could
never be missionaries in Ceylon, when yor
read about the snakes and crocodiles II
so, just remember that God does not lei
them hurt any of the missionaries; but Goo
does let them see a great many pretty
things, and eat great many delicious fruit'
in Ceylon, that you can never see and cal
in America.