Note 23 — Chapter XII · THE VALLEY OF THE MAGDALENA

Some palms, like the Metroxylon, for instance, never survive fructification. It fruits but once, and then, as Martius so graphically expresses it, “nobilis arbor mox riget, perit et cadit”—the noble tree presently withers, perishes and falls. But, continues the same writer, “there is pleasure and solace in the thought that palms never die without yielding fruit, thereby insuring the continuance of the species.” And then, as is his wont when opportunity offers, he takes occasion from this circumstance to moralize as follows: “To labor, to flourish, to fructify is granted not only to the palm but to man also.”23