44 PALM TREES 



crowded, and the fruit is large, oblong, and reticulated 

 with large scales. 



The petiole or leaf-stalk of this tree is most exten- 

 sively useful. It is often twelve or fifteen feet long 

 below the first leaflets, and four or five inches in dia- 

 meter, perfectly straight and cylindrical. When dried, 

 it almost equals the quill of a bird for strength and 

 lightness, owing to its thin hard outer covering and 

 soft internal pith. But it is too valuable to the Indian 

 for him to use it entire. He splits off the smooth 

 glossy rind in perfectly straight strips and makes 

 baskets and window blinds. The remaining part is of a 

 consistence between pith and wood, and is split up into 

 laths about half an inch thick and serves for a variety of 

 purposes. Window shutters, boxes, bird-cages, par- 

 titions and even entire houses are constructed of it. In 

 the little village of Nazare near Para, many houses of 

 this kind may be seen in which all the walls are of this 

 material, supported by a few posts at the angles and 

 fastened together with pegs and slender creepers (sipos) . 



The hand may be easily pushed through one of these 

 walls, but as the inhabitants do not trouble themselves 

 with the possession of any article worth stealing, they 

 sleep as composedly as if stone walls and iron bolts shut 

 them in with all the security of a more advanced civili- 

 zation. 



The same material is also used for stoppers for 

 bottles, and we found it answer admirably for lining 

 our insect boxes, holding the pins securely and being 

 more uniform in its texture than cork. 



