382 PALMiE. 



round membranous dry case of the seeds in some of 

 the 1st section. The term pileus, a hat, is used by 

 all authors for the head of those fungi that compose 

 the 2d section. 



Appendix. Palmcc. The natural order of Palms 

 was so little understood when Linnaeus formed his 

 systematical arrangement of plants, and so few of their 

 flowers had been scientifically examined, that he was 

 under the necessity of leaving this order as an appen- 

 dix to his system, till it could be better investigated. 

 To its peculiar habit and physiology we have adverted 

 in several of the foregoing pages, see/;. 58 — 60, 63, 

 117, &c. 



Late observations show Palms to have for the most 

 part 6 stamens, rarely 3 or 9, with 3 or 6 petals, and 

 1 or 3 styles ; which last are sometimes in the same 

 flower with the stamens, sometimes in a separate one, 

 but both flowers always agree in general structure. 

 Their fruit is generally a driipa. They are -akin to 

 the /z/iffceo/« tribe, and Linnaeus happily terms them 

 the princes of the vegetable kingdom. His most nu- 

 merous remarks concerning them occur in his Pr(e- 

 lectiones in Ordines jYatwales Planfarum, published 

 by Piufcssor Giseke at Hamburgh in 1792, from pri- 

 vate lectures and conversations of Linnaus. This 

 work however is necessarily full of errors and mis- 

 takes, not only from its mode of compilation and the 

 intricacy of the subject, but because Linnaeus had 

 only partially studied certain parts of that subject, and 

 was undecided in his sentiments upon those parts. 



