152 PHILIPPINE PALMS 
height of from 12 to 15 meters and a diameter of 40 centimeters. 
When the tree has attained mature size, a flowering shoot is 
usually sent out from the axil of the upper leaf. This is fol- 
lowed by others which are produced successively lower down, 
until the tree is finally exhausted and dies. Avrenga pinnata has 
very numerous, crowded, green nuts, which turn yellow when 
mature. This palm is widely distributed at low and medium 
altitudes throughout the settled areas of the Philippines, in 
ravines along streams, and in semi-cultivation. It may not 
however be native to the Philippines, but a species purposely 
introduced by the Malays in their early invasions. Its occa- 
sional occurrence in virgin forest may be due to the fact that 
it is naturally a sylvan species, and that its ripe fruits have been 
distributed by wild hogs and fruit bats, both of which eat the 
mature fruit. 
The sugar palm is one of considerable utility in the Philip- 
pines, although no product of it enters into foreign commerce. 
It yields sugar, starch, fermented drink, alcohol, thatching 
material, various fibers that are utilized in industrial work, 
and other minor products. 
The fruits are about 5 centimeters in diameter and contain 
two or three seeds. Immature seeds are sometimes eaten by 
the Filipinos, being usually boiled with sugar to form a kind 
of sweetmeat. The buds make an excellent salad. 
The outer part of the fruit contains very numerous, micros- 
copic, needle-like, stinging crystals or rhaphides; and this part 
of the fruit is exceedingly irritating. Blanco relates how, in 
former times, the fruits were thrown into the water and allowed 
to decay, and the resulting fluid, which causes intense itching 
and burning sensations wherever it comes in contact with the 
skin, used sometimes to repel the attacks of Mohammedan pi- 
rates. Another interesting use of this ‘Hell water’, as de- 
scribed by Rumphius, * was to pour the liquid into streams, 
thus rendering fish more or less helpless, so that they might 
be seized with the hands. At the present time the crushed 
fruits are sometimes strewn along the paths on the banks and 
dikes of fish ponds to protect them against nocturnal robbers, 
as the stinging needles in the pericarp irritate the bare feet. 
The leaves are sometimes used for thatching roofs, and are 
said to be very durable. For this purpose the leaflets are re- 
moved and prepared in a manner similar to that of preparing 
the nipa palm. The midribs of the leaflets are frequently used 

* Herbarium Amboinense. Volume I (1741), page 57. 
