Palmacee.] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 399 
The constituents of the sap being such as may easily be made to undergo the 
fermentative process, we find that, instead of being boiled down to procure sugar, it is 
allowed to undergo the vinous fermentation, when it forms palm wine, often called 
toddy, from tarree. This being afterwards distilled, yields the spirit called arrack, from 
the Arabic arwk, the general term for spirit. The true Date-tree, Pheniv dacty- 
lifera, is the species which was first known in Europe to have been thus employed, 
but the fruit being injured when the sap is drawn off, it is probably less frequently so 
employed than others. In India, Phenix sylvestris or khujjoor, commonly called the 
Date-tree, yields palm wine in great abundance, as does Borassus Alabelliformis, the 
tar of the natives, whence tarree, which has been corrupted into toddy. It is called 
Palmyra toddy in Guzerat. Caryota urens yields an immense quantity of toddy or 
palm wine—Dr. Roxburgh states, at the rate of one hundred pints in twenty-four 
hours, during the hot season. Arenga saccharifera, so often mentioned, was called 
Palma indica vinaria by Rumphius ; and Metroxylon viniferum, the Raphia of Pal. de 
Beauvois, has its specific name from yielding the same product on the coast of Africa. 
Abounding in demulcent and saccharine juice, the fruit also contains the latter principle 
in some species, as in the Date, which being esteemed as one of the most agreeable, at 
the same time that it is one of the most nutritive of fruits, forms a considerable article 
of commerce from Africa into Europe. The fruit of other species, as that of P. fari- 
nifera, humilis, and acaulis, though small, is likewise eaten. Zalacca edulis, found in very 
different climates, has a pulpy and juicy covering to its seeds, which is much sought 
after and eaten by the Burmese. The fruit of Borassus flabelliformis, called tur-gool, 
is also eaten, as is that of Chamerops Madrtiana in Nepal. 
Oil is also yielded by some of this family, but only by the tribe called Cocoine, 
which is distinguished by the originally trilocular putamen having its cells, when 
fertile, perforated opposite to the seat of the embryo, and when abortive indi- 
cated by foramina coeca. (Brown). Of these, the Cocoa-nut, juoz hindee or nux indica of 
Avicenna, is cultivated in many parts of the Indian islands, for the sake not only of 
the sap and milk it yields, but for the kernel of its fruit, used both as food and for . 
culinary purposes, and as affording a large proportion of oil, which is burned in lamps 
throughout India, and forms also a large article of export to Europe. Elais guincensis,. 
or the Oil-palm, Maba of the natives of the Congo, and common all along the coast of 
Africa, and Alfonsia oleifera, a native of S. America, so nearly allied to the former, as 
to be thought identical by some authors, also yield oil. Wax, or rather a mixture of 
wax and resin, is another product, secreted on the outer surface of the stem, in the 
spaces between the rings resulting from the fall of the leaves, of Jriartea (Ceroxylon) 
andicola. . 
Besides these valuable products, almost every part of Palm trees is made use of in - 
many countries; the stems for many of the purposes of timber, the leaves, especially 
those of Corypha Taliera, for writing on ; of Borassus flabelliformis, for making punkhas ; 
of Corypha umbraculifera, for thatching.. Baskets, &c. are made with the leaf-stalks of 
the 
