ion. It stood all alone, though there were others of a similar
kind at no great distance. The others, however, were much smaller, and
it was the largest that had drawn our attention. Indeed, though the
smaller trees bore a general resemblance to this one--so that you could
tell they were of the very same kind--yet they differed very
considerably from it, both in form and aspect; and, but for the
peculiarity of the leaves, one might have taken them for trees of
altogether distinct species. The leaves of both, however, were exactly
alike, and from this and other indications it was evident that both were
trees of the same kind, only that a difference of age had created a
difference in their aspect--as great as would be between a chubby,
rosy-cheeked child and a wrinkled old man of eighty. The small trees,
and consequently the younger ones, rose upon a straight, round stem,
only a few feet in height. Each was about the height of a full-grown
man, while the stem itself, or trunk as it should more properly be
called, was full as thick as a stout man's body; and what was curious in
a tree, it was even thicker at the top than at the base, as if it had
been taken out of the ground and re-planted wrong end upwards! Upon
this clumsy-looking trunk there was not a single branch--not even a
twig, but just upon its top grew out a vast tuft of long, straight
spikes that resembled broad-sword blades, only that they were of a green
colour. They pointed in every direction, radiating from a common
centre, so as to form a large head somewhat roundish, or globe-shaped.
Any one who has seen an aloe or a yucca-plant will be able to form some
idea of the foliage of the singular tree upon which my companion and I
stood gazing in wonderment. The leaves were more like those of the
yucca than the aloe--indeed, so like the yucca was the whole tree, that,
from what I afterwards saw of yucca-trees in Mexico and South America, I
am convinced that these are very near the same kind--that is, they were
of the same habit and family, though, as I also learned afterwards,
esteemed different by botanists.

Then I had never seen a yucca, much less a tree of the kind we were
gazing at; of course I could only guess at what they might be.

Ben thought they were palms; but Ben was wrong again, for he was no
great discriminator of genus or species. His opinion was based upon the
general aspect which the trees--that is, the smaller ones--presented.
Certai