208 VEGETABLE IVORY PALM. 
the base of the leaves on very short stalks, the great heads (Cabeza 
de Negro, like Negroes’ heads, whence that name) resting on the 
ground, or lodged among the axils of the foliage, constituting a dry 
Drupe; that is, the covering to the seeds in an early stage is soft, 
fluid, or pulpy, but eventually dries up into a hard almost woody 
mass, 3—4 or 5-lobed, and everywhere embossed with conical, angular 
tubercles, something like the coat of a pine-apple: these tubercles, 
however, vary remarkably in size and length, giving an impression 
that there are several species of the genus. Within each lobe are 
several (the number would appear very uncertain) large, hard, smooth, 
oval or obovate, or almost spherical seeds, of a greyish-brown colour, 
sometimes with the sides flattened by pressure, sometimes depressed. 
In this state they are sent to Europe, for it is they which contain 
the ivory-like substance. The outer coat, hard and crustaceous, is 
easily removed, when a thin brown skin appears, marked with anasto- 
mosing vessels, and distinguished by a hole or foramen, indicating 
the position of the embryo. Within this skin the whole is occupied, 
om the centre to the circumference with the exception of the small 
embryo, by the albumen, the food of the young plant, analogous to the 
white of an egg; and the albumen (which, in the cocoa-nut, is soft 
and fleshy, and eatable), is here firm and hard, in appearance ex- 
"d resembling ivory, hence employed by the mechanics as far as the 
ize wil allow, for various purposes in turning, &c., as a substitute 
i or ivory, a much more expensive article. What is wanting in size, 
however, is often made up by the skill and ingenuity of the workman: 
when an article is turned it easily permits of pieces being added and 
united to it without the blemish being exposed to view; and where a 
lid is required for a box of Vegetable Ivory, a separate seed is used 
for the lid. 
Thus we have another among many instances, of a vegetable product 
so nearly resembling, and exactly resembling to the eye, an animal su 
stance (and that of a very distinct yet familiar character) as to be fre- 
quently passed off for such; and the generic name Phytelephas, (Ruiz and 
Pavon) will thus be found to be very appropriate, being derived from 
Qvrov, a plant, and edegas, an elephant ; for as the elephant is the ivory- 
bearing animal, so the Tagua is the ivory-bearing plant. Much, how- 
ever, as the albumen of the seed of the Phytelephas resembles animal 
Ivory at the first glance, its internal emus is extremely different, 
