Two Of The Largest And Heaviest Fruits
Known, However, The Brazil-Nut Fruit (Bertholletia) And Durian,
Grow On Lofty Forest Trees, From Which They Fall As Soon As They
Are Ripe, And Often Wound Or Kill The Native Inhabitants.
From
this we may learn two things:
First, not to draw general
conclusions from a very partial view of nature; and secondly,
that trees and fruits, no less than the varied productions of the
animal kingdom, do not appear to be organized with exclusive
reference to the use and convenience of man.
During my many journeys in Borneo, and especially during my
various residences among the Dyaks, I first came to appreciate
the admirable qualities of the Bamboo. In those parts of South
America which I had previously visited, these gigantic grasses
were comparatively scarce; and where found but little used, their
place being taken as to one class of uses by the great variety of
Palms, and as to another by calabashes and gourds. Almost all
tropical countries produce Bamboos, and wherever they are found
in abundance the natives apply them to a variety of uses. Their
strength, lightness, smoothness, straightness, roundness and
hollowness, the facility and regularity with which they can be
split, their many different sizes, the varying length of their
joints, the ease with which they can be cut and with which holes
can be made through them, their hardness outside, their freedom
from any pronounced taste or smell, their great abundance, and
the rapidity of their growth and increase, are all qualities
which render them useful for a hundred different purposes, to
serve which other materials would require much more labour and
preparation.
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