Poets and moralists, judging by what they see in England, have concluded that fruits of a small size, whose fall cannot be dangerous to man, invariably grow on high trees, while large fruits, such as the pumpkin, are only found trailing on the ground. But a visit to the tropics would soon convince them of their error, for two of the largest and heaviest fruits known, the Brazilian nut (Bertholletia) and the Durian of the Indian Archipelago, grow on high forest trees, from which they fall down when ripe, and frequently wound or kill the natives. ‘From this,’ says Mr. Wallace, ‘we can learn two things—in the first place, not to draw general conclusions from a locally very limited knowledge of nature, and, secondly, that trees and fruits, as well as the manifold productions of the animal kingdom, have not been exclusively organised with a reference to man.’