“Wonder, astonishment, and devotion”

I came across this journal entry in Diaries of Note. It was written in 1831 in Brazil by Charles Darwin. It describes a typical day in his life then, surveying the rain forest with the help of his team. I was excited to see his description of the cabbage palm, Florida’s official tree, and one of my favorites. His description of the stem (“so narrow that it might be clasped with the two hands”) doesn’t reconcile with the 50+ cabbage palms in Paradise Palms. Ours are a bit thicker. But the height is right, and they are a handsome species. Darwin’s last sentence matches how I sometimes feel strolling through our 25 acres.

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