Palm ALES.] 



PALMACE^. 



135 



^[4• 



single mdi^^dual ; while every bunch of the Seje Palm of the Oronoco bears 8000 fruits. 

 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 mi- 

 nute embryo lying in the midst of albu- 

 men and remote from the hilum, and theLr 

 arborescent stems with rigid, plaited or 

 pinnated, inarticulated leaves, called 

 fronds ; but their aspect and habits are 

 extremely various. To use the w^ords of 

 the most accompUshed traveller of our 

 own, or any age ; — " While some (Kmi- 

 thia montana, Aiphanes Praga, Oreodoxa 

 frigida) have trunks as slender as the 

 graceful reed, or longer than the longest 

 cable, (Calamus Rudentum, 500 feet), 

 others ( Jubsea spectabilis and Cocos bu- 

 tyracea) are 3 and even 5 feet thick ; 

 wliile some gi'ow collected in groups 

 (Maui'itia flexuosa, Chamterops humilis), 

 others (Oreodoxa regia, Martinezia cary- 

 oteefolia) singly dart their slender trunks 

 into the air ; while some have a low cau- 

 dex (Attalea amygdalina), others exhibit 

 a towering stem 160-180 feet high (Ce- 

 roxylon andicola) ; and while one part 

 flourishes in the low valleys of the tro- 

 pics, or on the decli\aties of the lower 

 mountains, to the elevation of 

 900 feet, another part consists 

 of momitaineers bordering 

 upon the limits of perpetual ^^i 

 snow." To which may be '*^ 

 added, that wliile many have 

 a cyUndi'ical midivided stem, 

 the Doom Palm of Upper 

 Egypt, and an allied species, 

 the Hyphaene coriacea, are 

 remarkable for their dicho- 

 tomous repeatedly-di\aded tinuik. The Calami, or Ro tangs, and the siUceous seci-etious of 

 their leaves, indicate an affinity mth Grasses, which would hai'dly be anticipated, if 

 the grasses of oui* European meadows were compared with the Cocoa Nuts of the Indies, 

 but which becomes more apparent when the Bamboo is placed by the side of the Cane. 

 The Rattan Palms, called by Rumphius Palmijunci, are described as inhabitants of 

 dense forests, w hero the rays of the sim can hardly penetrate, in which situations they 

 form spiny bushes which obstruct all passage into those jungles, rising to the tops of 

 the highest trees and falling again, so as to resemble a prodigious length of cable, adorned 

 however with the most beautiful leaves, pinnated or terminating in graceful tendrils. ^ 



Von Martins, the great illustrator of this noble family, speaks thus of their habits 

 and geographical arrangement : — " Palms, the splendid offspring of Tellus and Phoebus, 

 chiefly acknowledge as their native land those happy regions seated within the tropics, 

 where the beams of the latter forever shine. Inhabitants of either world, they hardly 

 range beyond 35" in the southern, or 40** in the northern hemisphere. Particular 

 species scarcely extend beyond their own contracted limits, on which account there are 

 few countries favom-able for their production in which some local and peculiar species 

 are not foimd ; the few that are dispersed through many lands are chiefly Cocos 

 nucifera, Acrocomia sclerocarpa, and Borassus flabelHformis. It is probable that the 

 number of species thus scattered over the face of nature will be found to amount to 

 1000 or more. Of these not a few love the humid banks of rivulets and streams, others 

 occupy the shores of the ocean, and some ascend into alpine regions ; some collect into 

 dense forests, others spring up singly or in clusters over the plains." Pror/r. 6. The 

 testimony of Von Martins is confirmed by Humboldt, who also asserts that there must 

 be an mcredible number still to discover in equinoctial regions ; especially if we consider 



if^/A^:^ 



Fig. XCII. 



Fig. XCII.-Sagus Rumphii. 1. a flower; 2. the same opened ; 3. a section of an ovary; 4. a sec- 

 tion of a seed of Sagiis filaris ; 5. fruit and remains of spi\dix.—Bliniu-. 



