136 PALMACEiE. [Endogens. 



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 then* range is confined. A difi'erent opmion appears to be entertained by 

 Schouw, a respectable Danish writer upon botanical geography, whose \'iews deserve to 

 be quoted, althovigh he is far from ha'S'ing had such personal means of judging as Hum- 

 boldt and Von IMartius. He seems to consider that we are acquainted abeady 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 favom-able to this tribe, for on the 

 Congo, Smith found only fi'om 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." It is, however, not to be forgotten that 

 Blume and Griffith have alone added 65 new species to the hst of Indian Pahus. 

 Blume is of opinion that great numbers still remain to be discovered "in immensis ilhs 

 et fertUissimis regionibus quarum plerseque primitiva atque intacta vegetatione conte- 

 guntur, neque imquam ab Europseis lustratse smit." The most northern limit of Palms 

 is that of Chamaerops Palmetto in N. America, in lat. 34^-36°, and of Chamserops 

 humiUs in Em'ope, 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 withm the tropic." Brown in Flinders, 577. 



Wine, oil, wax, flour, sugar, salt, says Humboldt, are the produce of tliis tribe ; to 

 which Von Martins 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 Wernerian Society, vol. v. The root is sometimes masticated instead of the 

 Areca Nut ; of the small fibres baskets are made m Brazil. The hard case of the 

 stem is converted into drums, and used m the construction of huts ; the lower pai*t is 

 so hard as to take a beautiful polish, when it resembles agate ; the reticulated substance 

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

 cloth. The unexpanded termmal bud is a delicate article of food ; the leaves furnish 

 thatch for dwellings, and materials for fences, buckets, and baskets ; they are used for 

 writmg 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 excellent A\-ine, or distilled into a sort of spmt, called 

 Arrack ; or the sugar itself is separated, imder the name of Jagery. The value of the 

 fruit for food, and the dehcious beverage which it contams, are well known to all Em'o- 

 peans. The fibrous and uneatable rind is not less useful : it is not only used to polish 

 furniture and to scour the floors of rooms, but is manufactured into a kind of cordage, 

 called Cou" rope, which is nearly equal in strength to hemp ; and which Roxburgh 

 designates as the very best of all materials for cables, on accomit of its great elasticity 

 and strength. Finally, an excellent oil is obtamed from the kernel by expression. 

 The juice which flows from the wounded spathes of Borassus flabeUiformis, Raphia 

 ^^nifera, Mauritia vinifera, the Cocoa Nut, and other Palms, is known in India by the 

 name of Toddy. Independently of the grateful quahties of this fluid as a beverage, it 

 is fomid to be the simplest and easiest remedy that can be employed for remoAnng 

 constipation in persons of delicate habit, especially European females. Accordmg 

 to Roxburgh, Caryota urens is highly valuable to the natives of the comitries where 

 it grows in plenty. It yields them, dm'ing the hot season, an immense quantity of 

 this toddy, or palm ^raie. The best trees Avill yield at the rate of 100 pints in the 

 twenty-four hom's. The pith, or farinaceous part of the trunk of old trees, is said 

 to be equal to the best Sago ; the natives make it into bread, and boil it into thick 

 gruel ; these form a great part of the diet of the people whose country it inhabits, and 

 dm'ing famines they suffer httle while those trees last. Roxbm-gh found it highly nutri- 

 tious. He ate the giniel, and thought it fully as palatable as that made of the Sago we 

 get from the Malay countries (Sagus laeris). Fl. Ind. 3. 625. 



The finest Sago is prepared from Sagus Ise^-is and genuina, trees forming immense 

 forests on nearly all the Moluccas, and so rich in starch that each individual is reckoned 

 to furnish from 600 to 8001b. of Sago {Rumphia, 2. 148) ; a similar substance is how- 

 ever yielded by Cai'yota m'ens, Phoenix farinifera, and many others. 



The Sagueiiis saccharifer (or Arenga saccharifera) is one of the most important of 

 the Order. Blume describes it {Rumphia, vol. 2. p. 126) as being from 20 to 25 feet 

 high, and very common in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the Moluccas and 

 Philippines, where it is of the greatest value on account of its saccharine secretions. 

 This juice is obtained continually from the spadixes in large quantities, by wounding 

 and pounding them while on the trees ; it yields by fermentation an intoxicating 



