Chap. I] CHARACTERS OF THE TROPICAL CLIMATE 231 



the groves of which, fringing most tropical coasts, have only exceptionally 

 originated without human aid (Figs. 118 and 236). In the cultivated lands 

 of the tropics one will always find the royal palm, Oreodoxa regia, the 

 finest of its race, which comes from the Antilles and Southern Florida 

 (Fig. 119). The avenues of Oreodoxa regia in Rio de Janeiro and in 

 Ceylon are renowned. [Among the commonest of cultivated palms may 

 also be reckoned Arenga saccharifera, important not for beauty but only as 

 an economic tree. In Eastern Asia, especially in the Malay peninsula, one 

 can easily recognize from a distance the presence of human settlements by 



Fig. 118. Cocos nucifera. On the sea-shore in Seychelles. From a photograph 



by A. Brauer. 



the occurrence of the betel-nut palm, Areca Catechu (Fig. 123). The 

 slender but tall stem, straight as an arrow, bears a small crown of emerald- 

 green leaves. Finally, we find the peculiar Caryota urens chiefly as an 

 ornamental tree, the bipinnate leaves of which bear triangular leaflets, and 

 to some extent remind one of Adiantum. A great number of other palms 

 are also cultivated as economic or ornamental trees, but yet without being 

 so generally distributed ; for instance numerous fan palms, the sago palms, 

 Metroxylon Rumphii, Mart., and M. laeve, Mart., the ivory-nut palm 

 Phytelephas macrocarpa, and so on. 



In natural landscapes the species of palm vary greatly according to the 



