498 



within the tropics, is considered by Linnaeus as the ori- 

 ginal food of man ; still supplying the place of corn to the 

 inhabitants of tropical countries. Palms are the most 

 lofty of plants, and yet it is a matter of doubt whether 

 they ought to be called trees or herbs. They do not form 

 wood in concentric circles, year after year, like our trees, 

 though they are extremely long-lived. The author of the 

 sexual system was, as we have just mentioned in speak- 

 ing of that system, but little acquainted at first with the 

 structure of the flowers of palms, or the number of their 

 stamens or pistils. His predecessors in the establishment 

 of genera of plants, Tournefort and Plumier, had pub- 

 lished little or nothing illustrative of this tribe. He had 

 himself seen no more than three or four species in fructi- 

 fication, nor had he any other resource, in founding ge- 

 nera, than the plates of the Hortus Malabaricus, (excel- 

 lent indeed, but not delineated with any particular view 

 of this kind,) and the less complete representations of 

 Rumphius. The growth of these plants is quite simple. 

 Each terminates in a bud, of a large size, called the heart, 

 or by voyagers in general the cabbage, of the palm. 

 When this is cut off, the tree dies, though the growth of 

 many centuries. This bud has a gradual and nearly con- 

 tinual vegetation, unfolding its leaves, which Linnaeus 

 rather incorrectly terms fronds, one after another in suc- 

 cession, not all at any particular season. The bud there- 

 fore is perennial, not, as in our trees, annual, nor can it, 

 for this reason, be renewed. Fresh buds, in time becom- 

 ing trees, are furnished from the generally creeping, per- 

 ennial, and deeply descending roots. What have com- 

 monly been denominated the branches of palms, Linnaeus 

 very properly declined calling so, because they never in- 

 crease by producing lesser branches. He objected to 

 calling them leaves, " because they are each attended by 

 no separate annual bud, neither have they the texture of 

 ordinary leaves, nor do they wither and fall off at any 

 particular season." He adopted the term frond, which 



