ne PahriP. 101 



looking down into the never-renting billows below. Welwitsch, on the other 

 hand, tells that in the pirched districts between the rivers Dande and Zanza 

 he saw a forest of a kind of Hyphseae some five leagues in length, consist- 

 ing almost exclusively of the branched stems of this peculiar palm. 



Some pilmshavea gourd-like swelling in the mid lie, or near the middle, 

 of their stems. We see in the yards of the convents of Chili, now and then, 

 the showy crown of the Cdquite palm {Subaca spectabilis), with gray-green 

 pinnate leaves, whif^h has such a stem. In the savannas of central Africa 

 rises the grandiose Delib palm (Barassus Arthiopum), and balances its 

 gigaatic fan leaves on a high columnar stem, which shows a little below the 

 middle of its height a swelling, which gradually and gently diminishes up- 

 ward and downward. This formation gives such strength to the trunk 

 that the strongest hurricane can not bend it. 



The mild and tender nature which distinguishes the palms and makes 

 them so attractive to men is not always present. Many stems of palms bristle 

 with thorns, with which they confront and oppose the traveler who comes 

 within their reich. Among these are the Desmoncus, Bictris, Guilielma, 

 Acrocomia, Astrocaryum, Aiphanes, Listonia Hagendorfii, Martinezia caryo- 

 tifolia, etc. The spines shoot like huge fangs forward on many stems ; on 

 others they are fine-pointed, like the sharpest needles, which the Indians 

 often use to tattoo with, or to puncture the skin before rubbing a dye in the 

 wounds. 



The petioles, or stems of the leaves, of many palms remain on the 

 stem for a long time after the green leaves have perished. They frequently 

 sharpen into thorny points, as is the case in the Chamserops hystrix of Loui- 

 siana and Florida. On other palms the bases of the leaf stalks remain on the 

 trunks, and give the surface of the trunks the appearance of being furnished 

 with steps. These steps facilitate the climbing of these trees, and the dwellers 

 of the torrid zone by them mount up to get the nourishing fruit, or to draw 

 off the palm wine from the sheath of the flower. The leaf stalks in another 

 great number of palms envelop its stem entirely, and form, when ex- 

 tended, broad fibrous sheets. The leaf stalk of the Oreodoxa regia of Cuba 

 is three to four yards wide, and much used to pack up the fragrant weed of 

 Vueltabajo. The tree drops one leaf every month. 



Wax is best known as the product of the honey-bee, but certain plants 

 probably produced wax long before bees began their quiet activity, and 

 some plants produce it still to a large extent. The palms are among the 

 most important wax-producing plants. The Peruvian wax palm {Ceroxylon 

 andicola) is entirely covered with a whitish wax, which gives it the appear- 

 ance of marble, A single stem of this palm furnishes twenty-five pounds 

 of wax. This wax is scraped from the stem and mixed with tallow for can- 

 dles. 



Von Martins says, informing us of another extraordinary presentation 

 among the palms : " Characteristic differences are also furnished in some 

 species by roots which, springing from the stem at about a foot or a foot and 



