West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1896-02-20


tIVes esteem the flesh great deli
cacY and claim that it makes ex.
cellent food. | failed TO loaru
whether they MIXED it or not.
The great beauty OF this place is
the cocoanut trees and avenues for
miles along tho lake. The foliage
IS very graceful and the fruit can
be seen at all stages during the
year. Some OF the trees are now
IN bloom, aud it looks very much
4 Ike corn tassel. Then you can see
he nuts all sizes, from that OF a
walnut mp 10 as big as your head.
Fbe nuts are encased IN a green
rlnd an inch or two thick. which
protects them till they ripen and
fall TO the ground. when il bursts
open. The cocoanuts do not grow
on branches, like other fruit or
nuts. but in bunch around the
trunk OF the tree from fifteen to
twenty feet from the ground. The
trees are hard to climb, as they are
very round and smooth, with no
limbs for about twenty feet, on an
average. They have been examined
with much interest by our excur.
slonlsts from the north. and another
delusion of our Youthful days has
been shattered. All the pictures
we used to see OF cocoanut trees bad
monkeys mp in them, and we were
taught that IN order to get tho nuts
the natives threw sticks or stones
at the monkeys, who retaiiaied by
throwing the cocoanuts at them.
We have walked miles and looked
at thousands of cocoanut trees and
failed to discover single monkey
as yet. In despair we asked native
about 1t. and told him we could see
no monkeys in the cocoanut trees.
and he said they were under them
here. We asked no more questions.
but warned our party to keep from
under the trees hereafter.
There are many beautiful resi-
dences for miles along the lake.
and the grounds around them filled
with tropical trees and flowers, and
orchards of oranges, some of the
trees loaded with fruit, as the freeze
OF last February hardly reached this
far down.
There is one of the famous ""Trav-
elers' Tree" blooming here, said to
be the only one ever in bloom i'm this
country. 1t was brought here from
the Sahara Desert and planted as
an experiment. 1t gets its name
from the fact that its round
smooth, green stalks, nearly as
thick rs n mans arm, are hollow
and filled with cool, pure, palatable
water that has refreshed and slaked
the thirst of and perhaps saved the
lie OF many weary traveller in the
great, sandy deserts of Asia and
Africa where it is found. | exam.
med 1T with much interest. and
prled into it and let the water run
out in stretm to satisfy myself of
what had read about it.
Another tree, or rather bush. that
does well here is the banana. and
there are several orchards around
here loaded with green bananas. |
walked through some of them and
found some bending over with large
punches of green bananas. The
bloom is very curious and picked
up some that had fallen off and ex.
amlned it critically. 1t comes out
in one big bud or long conical
shaped red flower about SIX inches
in length and nearly as large as
your list. pointed at the end. AS
each leaf unfolds row of small
bananas, about an inch long, comes
out clear around between the leaves
OF the bud. This leaf peels off and
others open and more small rows of
fruit appear, and so on, till large
bunch is started with perhaps two
or three hundred bananas on il.
About the time they get their
growth, and generally before. they
are pulled for shipment green, so
they can be handled and keep lon
ger. At Cragin Place here there
IS cactus garden with three hun
died varieties growing in magnifi
cent abundance.
ARn1ro " w com