The Palms. 105 



their stem, or in the jixils of their leaves (infrafrondales). The presence of 

 the leaves is not always necessary during the flowering and Jructification. 

 The leaves drop off on certain p:dms before the flower spathe appears (Eu- 

 terpe, Oenocarpiis, Areca, Seaforthia, etc.); in others the leaves persist at 

 all times (Arenga, Sagus, Phamix Mauritia, Borassus, Lodoicea, Latania, 

 Hyphoene, etc.). The racemes of the flowers sometimes attain a gigantic 

 size. The Cryptocalyx of Java sends from the crown a fluttering spike six- 

 teen feet in length, and many others are not much smaller. 



The diminutiveness of the flower of the palm must not be cons'dered 

 a defect; it is rather an advantage. Nature operates more through contrast 

 than through harmony. The leaves which give the palm its peculiar majesty 

 would sufTer in their effect if large and highly colored flowers were put by 

 their side. The palm flower compensates at least for the deficiency of its 

 size by the enormous number of fl )rets. More than 208,000 were counted 

 on a single raceme of the Sagus Rumphii, which is preserved in the museum 

 at Kew, and as the tree produces commonly three such racemes, the num- 

 ber of florets must have amounted to 624,000. 



The sex is mostly separated in the flower of the palms. We find the 

 male and female flower often on one tree (Cocos, Attalea, Areca, Desmoncus, 

 Sagus, Leopoldia, Geonoma, etc.), and often on two separate trees (Pncenix, 

 Chamfedoria, Mauritia, Borassus, Lodoicea, Latania, etc.), and, indeed, the 

 differences of the sex in plants was first observed on the palms. It was 

 known to the Egyptians and the Greeks. The spathe and the flowers of 

 several palms exhale a very agreeable musky odor toward evening and 

 morning. Among them are the ^rocomia sclerocarpa, Chamsedoria fra- 

 grans, Morenia fragrans, Astrocaryum, Diplothemium Bactris, Saguera sac- 

 charifera, etc.; but unfortunately not all produce an agreeable, but, on the 

 contrary, some exhale a fetid and putrid, smell CAreca catechu). Some 

 flowers develop a certain amount of heat at the time of inflorescence. It is 

 commonly the spathe which shows the increase of temperature, as in Bac- 

 tris, iErocomia, Iriartea. 



The maturation of the fruit of the palms is a very slow process. In 

 many palms it requires at least eight months, in Sagus, as already stated, 

 three years and in the Maldivian nut {Lodoicea Sechellarum), whose hard, 

 woody shell is two inches in thickness, ten years to mature the fruit. 



The fruit is often in great disproportion to the flower. The small flow- 

 ers of the Borassus, Cocos, Lodoicea and Eugeissonia produce very volumi- 

 nous fruit. The fruit of the Lodoicea Sechellarum — a very peculiar kind of 

 cocoa-nut — is often half a yard long, a yard in circumference, and weighs 

 over fifty pounds; it is cordiform, and the greatest tree fruit of the world, 

 and known under the names of Maldivian nut or Coco des Maldives, double 

 cocoa-nut and Coco de mer. 



Not all fruits of the palms are nuts with a dry and fibrous cover. Others 

 produce berries or drupes, with a fleshy and soft cover inclosing a stony 

 kernel. Some of them are edible, like the drupe of the Phcenix dactylifera 



