"  In  their  native  surroundings,"  I  say,  since
all  life  is  really,  in  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  famous

*  phrase,  "  adaptation  to  the  environment ;  "  and

*  therefore  we  can  only  understand  and  discover
the  use  and  meaning  of  each  part  or  organ  by
watching  the  plant  in  its  own  home,  and  among
the    general    conditions    by    which    it   and   its
ancestors  have  always  been  limited.     It  would
be   impossible,  for  example,  to  see  the  use   of
the  thick  outer  covering  of  the  coconut    (from
which  coconut  matting  is  manufactured)  if   we
did  not   know   that   the    coconut    palm   grows
naturally  by  the  sea  shore  in  tropical  islands,
and  frequently  drops  its   fruits  into  the  water
beneath  it.     The  nuts  are  thus  carried  by  the
waves   and   currents   from   islet    to    islet  ;    and
the  coconut  palm,  which  is  a  denizen  of   sea-
sand,    owes  to  this   curious   method   of  water-
carriage  its  wide  dispersion  among  the  coral-reefs
of  the  Pacific.     But  a  plant  that  is  so  dispersed
must    needs   make    provision   against    wetting,
bruising,  and  sinking  in  the  sea  ;  and  since  only
those   coconuts  would  get  dispersed  over  wide
spaces  of  water  which  happened  to  possess  a
good  coating  of  fibre,  the  existing  plant  has  come
to  produce  the  existing  nut  as  we  know  it — richly
stored   with  food  for  the  young  palm  while  it
makes  its  first  steps  among  the  barren  rocks  and


200       THE  STOBY  OF  THE  PLANTS.
