374 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fig. 5. Oham^erops excelsa. 



of these is probably the Areng, or sugar palm of Amboyna {Arenga 

 sacchar If 'era), which grows in India and the archipelago. It is a 

 superb tree, with pinnate leaves twenty-five feet long, and is as 



handsome as it is useful. 

 A number of species be- 

 longing to different genera 

 furnish a kind of hair of 

 finer or coarser texture. It 

 is found in the fibrous 

 sheaths of the leaf-stalks 

 and in the jagged edges of 

 the leaves. Cables made 

 of the black, tough fibers 

 of the Areng are preferred 

 by the coasting sailors of 

 the Spanish colonies on ac- 

 count of their elasticity and durability ; and they are, moreover, 

 very fine. The hemp palm of Japan and China {Chamcerops 

 excelsa, Fig. 5) is available in the hands of the industrious people 

 of those countries for making the finer brooms, light strings, and 

 a thousand articles of daily use. Palms of coarser fiber, like the 

 Piacaba of Brazil (Leopoldina piacaba), furnish material for 

 blinds, brushes, brooms, and the rollers of mechanical sweepers, 

 which are much more durable than rollers fitted with steel teeth. 

 A waxy exudation forms on the trunks of the wax palm of the 

 Andes (Ceroxylon andicola) and is collected by the natives for 

 purposes of illumination. The Carnauba of Brazil (Copernica 

 cerifera) forms a cerous efflorescence on the inside of its leaves. 

 The natives climb upon the trees of the latter species and beat 

 the leaves with rods, when a fine snow falls from them and is col- 

 lected on cloths spread upon the ground for the purpose. The 

 wax of the Carnauba is used in commerce, both by itself and asso- 

 ciated with other similar substances. 



The fruits of the palm are inferior to none. Every child knows 

 what Robinson Crusoe did with his cocoanuts. After dates, this 

 is the most generally diffused fruit of the palm. No drink is more 

 in demand among the Creoles and blacks than the milky kernel of 

 the green cocoanut. When the fruits reach us, the albumen has 

 hardened and become somewhat tough and indigestible. This nut 

 is one of the sources of wealth in some cases, perhaps, the only 

 one of the coral islands of Oceania and some other tropical 

 regions. With the top in the sun and its roots bathed by the sea- 

 waters its favorite station the cocoa-tree (Cocos nucifera) con- 

 tinues in good condition to the age of seven or eight hundred 

 years. The dry nut, called copra, is marketed by the thousand 

 tons every year, to be employed in various uses for which fats are 



