Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/95

as large probably as a cocoa-nut, its form being like that of a Provence rose-bud, and of a dark violet colour. I saw upon almost all banana-trees, even on those which bore rich clusters of ripe fruit, this immense violet-coloured bud hanging, and was not a little curious to know all about it. And now you shall know! One of the outer leaves or envelopments of the bud loosens itself, or opens itself gently at the top, and you now perceive that its innermost side glows with the most splendid vermilion red; and within its depth you see peeping forth, closely laid together side by side, six or seven little light-yellow figures, not unlike little chickens, and very like the woolly seed-vessels in the single peony-flower. The leaf encasements open more and more to the light and the air, and those little light-yellow, fruit-chickens peep forth more and more. By degrees the leaf, with its little family, separates itself altogether from the bud, and a length of bare stem grows between them. The little chickens now gape with pale-yellow flower-beaks, and put out their tongues (they are of the didynamia order) to drink in the sun and the air; but still the beautiful leaf bends itself over their heads like a screen, like a protecting wing, like a shadowy roof. The sun would as yet be too hot for the little ones. But they grow more and more. They begin to develop themselves, to plump out their breasts, and to raise their heads more and more. They will become independent; they will see the sun, they need no longer the old leaf. The leaf now disengages itself—the beautiful maternal leaf—and falls to the earth. I have frequently seen these leaf-screens lying on the ground beneath the tree, and taken them up and contemplated them with admiration, not only for the part they act, but for the rare beauty and clearness of the crimson colour on their inner side; one might say that a warm drop of blood from a young mother's heart had infused itself there. The young chickens, which are cocks and hens at the