2«0 



Essential Character Flowers hermaphrodite, or frequently polvtramous. Peri- 



anthium 6-parted, in two series, persistent ; the 'A outer segments often smaller, the inner 

 sometimes deeply connate. Stamens inserted into the base of the perianthium, usually 

 definite in number, opposite the segments of the perianthium, to which they are equal 

 m number, seldom 3 ; sometimes, in a few polygamous genera, indefinite in number. 

 Ovary 1, 3-celled, or deeply 3-lobed, the lobes or cells 1 -seeded, with an erect ovnium, 

 rarely 1-seeded. Fruit baccate or drupaceous, with fibrous flesh. Albumen cartilaginous, 

 and either ruminate, or furnished with a central or ventral cavity; e;«iryo lodged in a 

 particular cavity of the albumen, usually at a distance from the hilum, dorsal and indi- 

 cated by a little nipple, taper or pulley-shaped; plumitla included, scarcely visil)le ; the 

 cotyledonous extremity becoming thickened in germination, and either filling up a pre- 

 existing cavity, or one formed by the liquefaction of the albumen in the centre Trunk 



arborescent, simple, occasionally shrubby and branciied, rough with the dilated half- 

 sheathing bases of the leaves or their scars. Leaves clustered, terminal, very large, 

 pinnate or flabelliform, plaited in vernation. Spnd'w terminal, often branched, enclosed 

 in a 1- or many-valved spatha. Flowers small, with bracteolw. Fruit occasionally very 

 large. R. Brown (1810). 



Affinities. The race of plants to which the name of Palms has been 

 assigned is, no doubt, the most interesting in the vegetable kingdom, if we 

 consider the majestic aspect of their towering stems, crowned by a still 

 more gigantic foliage; the character of grandeur which they impress upon 

 the landscape of the countries they inhabit ; their immense value to man- 

 kind, as affording food, and raiment, and numerous objects of economical 

 importance; or, finally, the prodigious developement of those organs by which 

 their race is to be propagated. A single spatha of the Date contains 

 about 12,000 male fiowers; Alfonsia amygdalina has been computed to 

 have 207,000 in a spathe, or 600,000 upon a single individual ; while every 

 bunch of the Seje Palm of the Oronoco bears 8000 fruit. They are very 

 uniform in the botanical characters by which they are distinguished, espe- 

 cially in their fleshy colourless 6-parted flowers, enclosed in spathes, their 

 minute embryo lying in the midst of albumen remote from the hilum, and 

 their arborescent stems with rigid, plaited or pinnated, inarticulated leaves, 

 called fronds ; but their aspect and habits are extremely various. To use 

 the words of the most accomplished traveller of our own, or any age; — 

 " While some (Kunthia montana, Aiphanes Praga, Oreodoxa frigida) have 

 trunks as slender as the graceful reed, or longer than the longest cable, 

 (Calamus Rudentum, 500 feet), others (Jubaea spectabilis and Cocos bu- 

 tyracea) are 3 and even 5 feet thick ; while some grow collected in groups 

 (Maiiritia flexuosa, Chamserops humilis), others (Oreodoxa regia, Martinezia 

 caryota^folia) singly dart their slender trunks into the air; while some have 

 a low caudex (Attalea amygdalina), others exhibit a towering stem 160-1 80 feet 

 high (Ceroxylon andicola) ; and while one part flourishes in the low valleys 

 of the tropics, or on the declivities of the lower mountains, to the elevation 

 of 900 feet, another part consists of mountaineers bordering upon tlie 

 limits of perpetual snow." To which may be added, that while many have 

 a cylindrical undivided stem, the Doom Palm of Upper Egypt and the 

 Hyphuene coriacea are remarkable for their dichotomous repeatedly-divided 

 trunk. In botanical affinity they approach as nearly to Junceae as to any 

 order, but they can hardly be said to be closely allied to those at present 

 known. The relation that was supposed to exist l^etween them and Cyca- 

 dcffi was inferred from inaccurate or imperfect considerations; and there 

 is nothing in Pandanea- that can approximate that order, except their dicho- 

 tomous trunks. The Calamus genus, and the siliceous secretions of their 

 leaves, indicate an affinity with Ciraminco), which would hardly be antici- 

 pated, if the grasses of our European meadows are compared with the Cocoa 

 Nuts of the Indies, but which becomes more apparent when the Bamboo is 

 placed by the side of the Cane. 



Geoguaimiy. Von Martins, the great illustrator of this noble family, 



