304 VIEWS, &C. PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS. 



tropical zone; wherever heat and moisture co-operate, vege- 

 tation is most exuberant and vegetable forms present the 

 greatest diversity. Hence South America is the most beau- 

 tiful portion of the palm world. In Asia the palm form is 

 rare, in consequence perhaps of a considerable part of the 

 Indian continent beneath the equator having been destroyed 

 and covered by the ocean in some earlier revolution of our 

 planet. We know scarcely anything of the African palms 

 between the Bay of Benin and the coast of Ajan ; and we are, 

 generally speaking, as already observed, acquainted with only 

 a very small number of African palm-forms. 



Palms, next to Coniferae, and some species of Eucalyptus 

 belonging to the family of the Myrtaceae, afford examples of 

 the loftiest growth. Stems of the Cabbage-palm (Areca ole- 

 racea) have been seen from 160 to 170 feet in height.* The 

 Wax-palm, our Ceroxylon andicola, which we discovered in the 

 Montana de Quindiu on the side of the Andes, between Ibague 

 and Carthago, attains the enormous height of 180 to 190 feet. 

 I was able to make an accurate measurement of the trunks 

 of some of these trees, which had been felled in the woods. 

 Next to the Wax-palm, the Oreodoxa Sancona, which we 

 found in flower in the valley of Cauca, and which affords 

 a very hard and admirable wood for building, appeared to me 

 to be the highest of all American palms. The fact, that not- 

 withstanding the enormous mass of fruit yielded by some 

 single palms, the number of individuals of each species grow- 

 ing wild is not very considerable, can only be explained by 

 the frequent abortive development of the fruit, and by the 

 voracity of the enemies by whom they are assailed from all 

 classes of animals. In the basin of the Orinoco, however, 

 whole tribes find the means of subsistence for many months 

 together in the fruit of the palm. " In palmetis, Pihiguao 

 consitis, singuli trunci quotannis fere 400 fructus ferunt pomi- 

 formes, tritumque est verbum inter Fratres S. Francisci, ad 

 ripas Orinoci et Guainiae degentes, mire pinguescere Indorum 

 corpora, quoties uberem Palmae fructum fundant.''f 



* Aug. de Saint-Hilaire, Morphologic vl-getale, 1840, p. 176. 



+ " In the Palm groves at Pihiguao, single trees annually bear as 

 400 fruit of an apple shape; and it is well known among the Brothers 

 of San Francisco, who live on the banks of the Orinoco and Guania, that 

 the Indians become very fat at the time that the Palms put forth their 

 unctuous fruit." — Humboldt, de distrib. geogr. Plant, p. 240. 



