I'M American Horticultural Society. 



on all sides 11 i«liinu ^Icaiiis from the glossy f-urface of their leaves. The royal 

 forms of the Taimyra, the Sabal, the Latania, etc., carry fans from twelve to 

 fifteen feet in breadth. Ten persons can conveniently stand under the leaf 

 of a Tali])at jiahn {Curypha umbr(icidijera). The navigators of the Upper 

 Nile set up the leaves of the Delip i>alni as a screen to make shade under 

 which to re.st. 



Nature has not only prepared parasols, but also paper, in the leaves of 

 the palm, especially of the Talipat, Palmyra, Borassus Habilliformis and 

 Cocos. These consist of long 8tri})s from the leaves, so as to serve the Hin- 

 doos for writing material, as VA Babir, the jtapyrus— whciico the word jiaper — 

 did the Egyj)tians. The strijjs are smoothed, and the writing is engraved 

 on its surface with a stylus. The writing is afterward rubbed with a black 

 mixture to make it more distinct. The merchant keeps his books on these 

 prepared slips or olas— the native name for them— and the craftsman writes 

 on it his account, which, in spite of the small tiimulic characters, produces 

 the same impressive effect as a European civilized account would. Even 

 many tender secrets are confided to the green leaf, which, neatly rolled up 

 and scaled, ilnds its delivery through the post-office as well as our letters. I 

 will here remark that this manner of writing may well l)e one of the oldest, 

 if not the oldest, according to Pliny. The oldest of writing on palm leaves 

 has to be put, according to Indian authorities, at thousands of years before 

 the historic era. 



We plant our cabbage in our gardens on the ground ; the inhabitant of 

 the tropics gets his cabbage on the top of palm trees, especially the Areca 

 oleracea, Cocos oleracea, Euterpe oleracea and many others. The palm cab- 

 bage is the tender heart of the leaves of many palms, but as this heart exists 

 only once, the tree dies when it is taken, and many palm forests have been 

 destroyed by the greediness of man for this product. 



The beautiful leaf of the palm is not always so free from danger as may 

 seem at first sight. Many palms, and principally the climbing palms, have 

 thorns on the petioles, which are sharper than the claws of a cat or of a 

 hawk. These thorns are sometimes hidden under the soft segments of the 

 leaf,and, therefore, so much the more dangerous. ^Erocomia, Astrocaryum, 

 Bactris, Guilielma, Desmoncus, etc., are genera belonging to this class. 



In extraordinary contrast with the size of the leaves are the dimensions 

 of the flowers, or, rather, of the llorets, in the palms. These are very small, 

 without remarkable coloration, and would disapjiear under the magnificence 

 of the leaves if they did not compose large corymbs or racemes, or sometimes 

 dispose in huge spikes. Few palms carry the floral panicle in the center of 

 the shaft (interfrondales), and are, therefore, monocarpous, that is, flower 

 and bear fruit only once in their lives and then die. Palms of this character 

 all belong to the old world, and bloom only at the age of forty or fifty years, 

 such as Corypha, Metroxylon, Eugiessonia. The Sagus blooms at about fif- 

 teen years of age ; the fruit is nearly three years in ripening, after which the 

 tree dies. Most of the palms produce their flowers (racemes) on the side of 



