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there must be an incredible number still to discover in equinoctial regions, es» 

 pecially if we consider how little is yet known of Africa, Asia, New Holland, 

 and America. He and Bonpland discovered a new species in almost every 50 

 miles of travelling, so narrow are the limits within which their range is con- 

 fined. A different opinion appears to be entertained by Schouw, a respectable 

 Danish writer upon botanical geography, whose views deserve to be quoted, 

 although he is far from having had such personal means of judging as Hum- 

 boldt and Von Martius. He seems to consider that we are acquainted 

 already with the greater part of the Palms ; for he says, "it appears from the 

 reports of travellers that such Palm woods as those of South America are 

 less frequent in other parts of the world. Africa and New Holland seem to be 

 less favourable to this tribe, for on the Congo, Smith found only from 3 to 4 

 Palms. In Guinea we know merely of the same number; and of the other 

 African Palms, 6 belong to the Isles of Bourbon and France. New Holland 

 has, in the torrid zone, three species, while Forster' s Prodromus of the Flora 

 of the South Sea Islands contains four." The most northern limit of Palms is 

 that of Chamcerops palmetto in N. America, in lat. 34°-36°, and of Chama- 

 rops humilis in Europe, near Nice, in 43°-44° N. lat. They are found in the 

 southern hemisphere as low as 38° in New Zealand. " It is remarkable that 

 no species of Palm has been found in South Africa, nor was any observed by 

 M. Leschenault on the west coast of New Holland, even within the tropic." 

 Brown in Flinders, 577. If Palms were not, as some say, among the earliest 

 plants that clothed the face of the globe, none of their remains existing, mixed 

 with the Ferns and Equisetums of the old coal formations, it is at least certain 

 that their creation dates long before that of the present Flora of the globe. 

 But it is probable that they really did exist at the most remote periods : for the 

 Noggerathia foliosa of Sternberg from the coal-fields of Bohemia seems really 

 to have been a Palm ; and M. Adolphe Bronginart refers two other fossils of 

 the same epoch to this family. It is at least certain that they appeared imme- 

 diately after the developement of Cycadea? ceased in European latitudes, and 

 that of Conuerae took a more decided form ; as we find unquestionable traces 

 of thern hi those deposits above the plastic clay which Brongniart calls Marno- 

 Charbonneux. 



Properties. Wine, oil, wax, flour, sugar, salt, says Humboldt, are the 

 produce of this tribe ; to which Von Martius adds, thread, utensils, weapons, 

 food, and habitations. The most remarkable is the Cocoa Nut, of which an 

 excellent account will be found in the Trans, of the Werncrian Society, vol. 5. 

 The root is sometimes masticated instead of the Areca Nut ; of the small fi- 

 bres baskets are made in Brazil. The hard case of the stem is converted into 

 drums, and used in the construction of huts ; the lower part is so hard as to 

 take a beautiful polish, when it resembles agate ; the reticulated substance at 

 the base of the leaf is formed into cradles, and, as some say, into a coarse kind 

 of cloth. The unexpanded terminal bud is a delicate article of food ; the 

 leaves furnish thatch for dwellings, and materials for fences, buckets, and 

 baskets ; they are used for writing on, and make excellent torches ; potash in 

 abundance is yielded by their ashes ; the midrib of the leaf serves for oars ; the 

 juice of the flower and stems is replete with sugar, and is fermented into excel- 

 lent wine, or distilled into a sort of spirit, called Arrack ; or the sugar itself is 

 separated under the name of Jagery. The value of the fruit for food, and the 

 delicious beverage which it contains, are well known to all Europeans. The 

 fibrous and uneatable rind is not less useful ; it is not only used to polish furni- 

 ture and to scour the floors of rooms, but is manufactured into a kind of cord- 

 age, called Coir rope, which is nearly equal in strength to hemp, and which 

 Dr. Roxburgh designates as the very best of all materials for cables, on ac- 

 count of its great elasticity and strength. Finally, an excellent oil is obtained 



