A HARVEST FROM THE OCEAN. 377 



the tall Chamcerops ; the Corypha ; Weddell's cocoa, and two or 

 three other species, are common as room ornaments. Other species 

 do not bear the close air of apartments well, and are very liable to 

 die if taken from the greenhouse or conservatory. 



Fig. 6 represents an avenue called the " Savannah of Cay- 

 enne," which is composed of the straight-stemmed cabbage palm 

 ( Oreodoxa oleracea of the Antilles), and has been much admired by 

 travelers. Whenever one of the trees is blown down, or removed 

 by any other cause, another one is at once planted in its place. 



Palm-trees rarely grow in numbers together. There are, how- 

 ever, groves of a few species. The Attalea excelsa of America, which 

 grows to the height of more than fifty feet, forms small woods. 

 The Oreodoxa oleracea, or cabbage palm, is one of the largest spe- 

 cies known, with its head often rising above the foliage of the vir- 

 gin forest. Specimens of it have been found by measure to be 

 about a hundred feet high, and the royal species of Havana rises 

 to nearly one hundred and twenty feet. These plants are for the 

 most part evergreen. They do not love climates of intermittent 

 temperatures and abrupt changes, except in rare cases, of which 

 the Areca palm of India {Areca catechu) affords an example. This 

 species is extensively cultivated in the Indies, where the firm and 

 astringent kernel of its nut (Fig. 7) is chewed with the betel-leaf 

 by every native, as other people smoke or chew tobacco. 



A considerable number of fossil palms have been found, chiefly 

 in the Miocene Tertiary of America, India, and Europe. Trans- 

 lated for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature. 



A HARVEST FROM THE OCEAN". 



By Pkof. C. MORTON STRAHAN. 



THE compensations of nature are nowhere more forcibly illus- 

 trated than along the bleak and rugged coasts of Scotland, 

 Ireland, and Brittany, and their adjoining islands. Towering 

 cliffs, whose scarred faces show no sign of verdure and defy all 

 hope of cultivation, clasp the deeply indented bays in rude em- 

 brace. Hamlets by the score hide themselves in the more shel- 

 tered nooks, and the inhabitants find a precarious living by follow- 

 ing the sea. Amid such unpromising surroundings Nature yearly 

 plants and nourishes beneath the waves and along the wave- 

 washed rocks a bounteous crop of sea-weed, which proves a genu- 

 ine blessing to the dwellers on those shores. Not only is this both 

 planted and nourished by the ocean, but it is to a great degree 

 harvested by the same hand, and laid ready for use at the very 

 doors of the fisherman's hut. The terrible storms which drive 



vol. xxxvi. 24 



