WAX PALMS— BOMHARD 313 



writes, "There in a thick vapor, a splendid vegetation unrolled before 

 our eyes : The first Ceroxylon appeared, reigning over a population of 

 ferns, tacsonias, beautiful orchids * * * " and, as he continued 

 toward Las Cruces and Gallegos, "The wax palms {G. andicola) ap- 

 pear finally in all their majesty, their feet in the water, their heads 

 in the clouds. They form forests {palmares) of columns which look 

 from afar like ivory, crowned by a sheaf of leaves 5 to 6 or more 

 meters [16 to 20 feet] in length" (pi. 1). 



Andre finally arrived at Las Cruces "in a state of fatigue, filthiness, 

 and tatters, impossible to describe" and was amazed to find that the 

 dwelling which marked the spot and where he was to spend the night 

 was a trim and fairly extensive place, the hacienda of Kamon 

 Cardenas. Ramon's house, although architecturally similar to other 

 houses in Colombia, was built almost entirely of the wax palm. The 

 uprights, instead of being made of whole or split bamboo like the 

 houses of warmer regions, were of this palm still covered with the 

 wax and looking like marble columns encircled by brown rings ; ® 

 in fact, "the entire framework was of the same palm wood, supple, 

 strong, and durable." "Th© roof, covered by the enormous leaves, 

 silver beneath, caught strange shadows, and made a warm and im- 

 penetrable cover." Andre does not specifically state that the "strange 

 shadows" were caused by the flicker of the candlelight and that the 

 candles were also made from the wax palm, but this was probably 

 true since Eamon's income from agriculture and hunting was aug- 

 mented by selling the wax which his men scraped from the palms. 

 This he sold in Bogota. The wax is usually scraped from living 

 trees but sometimes the palms are felled first. Humboldt and others 

 tell of this use of the wax for candles and matches and Humboldt 

 suggested its commercial possibilities. The wax burns with a clear 

 bright flame. 



Ramon seems to have been so complimented by his learned visitor's 

 interest in the jaguar skins which adorned his dwelling that it was ar- 

 ranged to go hunting the next day. Andre writes that, after several 

 hours of sleep, he was awakened by the cold. He looked at his ther- 

 mometer and noted that it was 2° C. (35.6° F.). He decided to walk 

 about outdoors. In the moonlight, the wax palms looked like "svelte 

 pillars of a cathedral; no breeze stirred the foliage of their majestic 

 crowns, which shot up 60 meters into the air." He continues : "This 

 silence, this impressive calm, in such a place, in the middle of the 

 night, stirred my soul with an emotion which I did not try to combat 

 and which I shall never be able to forget." Andre soon learned that, 



■The bases of palm loaves completely encircle the stem In the early stage of develop- 

 ment ; If the internodes elongate rapidly as in the wax palms, a ring or ecar is left com- 

 pletely around the stem when the leaf falls off. 



