THE PALM TREE. 129 



able fruit, and its fibrous husks supply us with mat- 

 ting, coir ropes, and stuffing for mattresses; but in 

 its native country it serves a hundred purposes ; food, 

 and drink, and oil are obtained from its fruit; hats 

 and baskets are made of its fibre, huts are covered 

 with its leaves, and its leaf-stalks are applied to a 

 variety of uses. To us the Date is but an agreeable 

 fruit, but to the Arab it is the very staff of life ; men 

 and camels almost live upon it, and on the abundance 

 of the date harvest depends the wealth and almost 

 the existence of many desert tribes. It is truly in- 

 digenous to those inhospitable wastes of burning 

 sands, which without it would be uninhabitable by 

 man. 



" A Palm tree of Africa, gives us oil and candles. 

 It inhabits those parts of the country where the 

 slave-trade is carried on, and it is thought by persons 

 best acquainted with the subject, that the extension 

 of the trade in palm oil will be the most effectual 

 check to that inhuman traffic ; so that a Palm tree 

 may be the means of spreading the blessings of 

 civilization and humanity among the persecuted negro 

 race. 



11 Sago is another product of a Palm, which is of 

 comparatively little importance to us, but in the East 

 supplies the daily food of thousands. In many parts 

 of the Indian Archipelago, it forms almost the entire 

 subsistence of the people, taking the place of rice in 

 Asia, corn in Europe, and maize and mandioca in 

 America, and is worthy to be classed with these the 

 most precious gifts of Nature to mankind. Unlike 



I 



