%0Z STUDIES OF NATURE. 



good eating before their expanfion. The trunk 

 of the palmift is woody only at the circumference, 

 and it is fo hard as to refill the edge of the beft 

 tempered hatchet. It may be cleft, with the ut- 

 moft eafe, from end to end, and is filled, in- 

 wardly, with a fpongy fubftance, which may be 

 eafily feparated. Thus prepared, it ferves to form, 

 for conducting waters, frequently diverted from 

 their courfe by the rocks which are at the fummit 

 of mountains, tubes which are not corruptible by 

 humidity. Thus the palm-tree gives to the inha- 

 bitants of thofe regions the means of conflrudting 

 aqueducts at the fource of rivers, and fhips at the 

 place of their difcharge. 



Other fpecies of trees render them the fame fer- 

 vices, in other fituations. On the fhores of the 

 Antilles 1 Hands grows the acajou, there called, but 

 improperly, the cedar, on account of it's incor- 

 ruptibility. It arrives at fuch a prodigious fize, 

 that out of one log of it they make a boat capable 

 of carrying fo many as forty men *. This tree 

 pofferTes another quality, which, in the judgment 

 of the bed obfervers, ought to render it invaluable 

 for the marine fervice ; namely this, that it is the 

 only one, of chofe fhores, which is never attacked 

 by the fea-worm, an infed fo formidable to every 



* Confult Fathers Labat and Du Tertre, 



other 



