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TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



eastern coastal plain and California. Of the 1200 described species, 

 some 17 grow naturally in the United States. 



Fig. 336. Coconut palm in fruit in Florida. Photo by W. M. Buswell. 



The palms are important sources of food, supplying dates, coconut 

 "meat" (endosperm), and "cabbage" (tenninal buds), as well as other 

 materials such as thatch, fans, timber, fiber, oils, liquor, vegetable ivory, ^ 

 sago, raffia, and rattan. Some of the palms rival the bamboos in the 

 multiplicity of uses man makes of them. 



The stems of palms are usualh' unbranched. The columnar trunk 

 surmounted only by a terminal crown of leaves has a striking appear- 

 ance in such trees as the royal palm. The leaves are either pinnately or 

 palmately veined, or have some combination of these venations. If the 



^ Horny endosperm from the seeds of the elephant palm is known as vegetable ivory. 



