THE PI.ANT WORLD 55 



Another Use for the Royal Palm. 



By William Palmer. 



In the June, 1901, issue of this journal (Vol. IV, p. 107) I gave a 

 brief account of some twenty uses 'of the Royal Palm iOreodoxa regid) 

 which I had observed among the people of western Cuba. During a trip 

 last year to the eastern end of the island, although I gave little attention 

 to the matter, I was able to make an addition to the list, an interesting 

 and most useful one on occasions, as will be seen. 



With Lieutenant Wright, of the 5th U. S. Infantry, the ofl&cer in 

 charge of the city of Baracoa, who had kindly offered to be of assistance, 

 and a Cuban as an interpreter, we set out to visit a cave located in the 

 woods of a hill some miles to the eastward across the bay from the city. 

 Near the hill we obtained the services of a guide, and after a weary 

 tramp along the worst apology for a road I had ever seen we reached 

 the cave. My object was to secure here as many specimens of bats as 

 possible, for the cave was said to contain three species in countless num- 

 bers. It was simply a hole in the porous limestone rock some ten feet in 

 diameter, and it formed a drain into which the rain-water of a rocky gully 

 poured, finding a channel to the sea. A huge-trunked tree stood at one 

 side of the opening, and myriads of rootlets streamed like an enormous 

 head of hair from some distance up the trunk well down into the open- 

 ing. Learning from the Cuban the nature of the cave and the character 

 of the egress of the bats, I at once decided to wait until dusk and capture 

 as many bats as possible with my butterfly net as they left the cave. As 

 this did not suit the arrangements of the Lieutenant and the interpreter, 

 they soon left, and the Cuban and I patiently waited for darkness. At 

 dusk a few bats emerged, but as the gloom increased they came in much 

 greater numbers, so that by hard work in the dark, swinging the net 

 rapidly backwards and forwards over the opening, we secured eighty 

 specimens of four species. 



When at length I felt satisfied with the evening's work I found myself 

 alone in the woods with a strange Cuban and with no knowledge whatever 

 of any means for finding the road. But I felt sure my guide would, and 

 so it proved ; for on reaching the side of the gully the Cuban searched for 

 a palm tree and secured several of the old, dry, fallen leaves. Breaking 

 off the bases he made a bunch of them, and lighting a match soon had a 

 flame at the upper end, thus producing a very good torch. With this we 

 began to thread our way through the dark woods, and eventually found 

 the road. At times the flames grew dim as the accumulating carbon pre- 

 vented a regular consumption of the leaves, so he simply rubbed the end 



