VEGETABLE IVORY PALM. - 209 
as may be expected. That of the seed of Palms, generally, bas been 
admirably illustrated with figures and descriptions by Hugo Mohl ; but 
that of the plant under consideration has especially occupied the atten- 
tion of Professor Morren, of Brussels, in the second part of the first 
volume of “ Dodonza, ou Recueil d’ Observations de Botanique, p. 74,” 
from which we give the following extract; and we must refer to the 
plate itself of that work (Tab. IL) for the highly magnified appear- 
ance of this beautiful and curious structure, and to the several figures 
to which reference is frequently made :— 
“The external covering of the ivory-nut (seed) is so hard as to be 
almost stony, yellowish-grey, smooth, and destitute of gloss: it is 
attached to a second eoating, which is brown, porous, and dull, and is 
incorporated with it. Beneath a hollow, which separates these two 
integuments, is a third, brown, veined, warted and glossy covering, 
traversed by numerous fibres, under which lies the albumen, which 
forms the Vegetable Ivory. The Vegetable Ivory is of the purest white, 
and free from veins, dots, or vessels of any kind, presenting a perfect 
uniformity of texture, surpassing the finest animal ivory; and its 
substance is everywhere so hard, that the slightest streaks from the 
turning-lathe are observable, and cannot be erased till it is newly 
ashioned. 
** When the article is carved, the Vegetable Ivory may be known by 
its brightness, and by its fatty appearance, whereon the well-skilled 
may discern the minute lines which are the beds of cells. Its structure 
would almost seem to show more analogy with bone than with ivory; 
but a microscopic investigation quickly proves that Vegetable Ivory 
possesses an entirely different structure. 
“ This structure is among the most curious in the vegetable kingdom. 
‘The external covering of the albumen is composed, as we proceed 
from the outside to the inside, of 
‘I. A layer of ovoid cellules, with brown thick parietes, the elon- 
wees centre of each cellule is filled with a darker substance. 
‘II. A second layer of ovoid cells, placed perpendicularly on the 
first, but with the innermost elongated, and approximating towards the 
structure of the next layer. 
“TII. A third layer of cells, still more elongated and fusiform, their 
parietes are thick and brown. 
“TV. A fourth layer of smaller and prismatic cells, placed perpen- 
VOL. I. 2E 
