76 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
PALM. 
North America. One species! is a slender tree found only in the swamps and low hummocks adjacent 
to the Chockoliskee River in southwestern Florida, and the other, which is the type of the genus, is a 
low plant generally scattered over sandy barrens from South Carolina to Louisiana, often covering great 
areas almost to the exclusion of other plants. 
Serenoa is not known to suffer from the attacks of insects or serious fungal diseases.’ 
The generic name commemorates the distinguished botanical services of Sereno Watson.’ 
1 Serenoa serrulata, Hooker f£. Bentham § Hooker Gen. iii. 926 
(1888). — Langlois, Cat. Pl. Basse-Louisiane, 17.— Chapman, Fl. 
ed. 3, 462. — Mohr, Contrib. U. S. Nat. Herb. vi. 424 (Plant Life 
of Alabama). 
Chamerops serrulata, Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 206 (1803). — 
Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. ii. 1155.— Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, v. 
489. — Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. i. 239. — Nuttall, Gen. i. 231.— 
Elliott, Sk. i. 481. — Sprengel, Syst. ii. 137. — Loudon, Arb. 
Brit. iv. 2532. 
Sabal serrulata, Roemer & Schultes, Syst. vii. pt. ii. 1486 
(1830). — Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1201. — Kunth, Enum. iii. 246. — 
Chapman, Fi. 438. 
Brahea serrulata, H. Wendland, Kerchove Les Palmiers, 235 
(1878). 
Serenoa serrulata, the Saw-Palmetto, produces a horizontal stem 
which is sometimes six or eight inches in diameter, and frequently 
extends for ten or twelve feet at a distance of from two to four feet 
below the surface of the ground. From this stem, which under spe- 
cially f bl diti 
feet above the ground, numerous stout roots penetrate deep into 
lly rises to the height of a few 
the soil, and short secondary stems rise to the surface and bear 
heads of numerous leaves which are supported on slender rigid 
petioles, and are thick and firm, about a foot in diameter, and pale 
on the lower surface, especially while young. From April to June 
it produces irregularly its flowers in ample panicles, remarkable 
for the long thin membranaceous red-brown boat-shaped tips of 
the spathes; and in the autumn the oblong-ovoid fruit, which is 
often an inch in length, covers the now drooping panicles, and 
affords abundant food for birds and many animals. 
The fruit of Serenoa serrulata possesses remarkable fattening pro- 
perties, and the domestic animals which feed on it soon become sleek 
and fat. In medicine it has been found sedative, nutrient, and 
diuretic, and about two hundred and fifty tons of Saw-Palmetto ber- 
ries are now consumed in the United States in the manufacture 
of fluid extracts used to improve digestion, increase weight and 
strength, to induce sleep, to relieve irritation of the mucous mem- 
brane of the throat, nose, and larynx, and to strengthen enfeebled 
sexual organs, and in the treatment of the enlarged prostate gland. 
(See Dupore, Medical Brief, 1877, 123. — Goss, Therapeutic Gazette, 
n. ser. i. 243. — Parke, Davis & Co., Organic Mat. Med. ed. 2, 159 ; 
Pharmacology of the Newer Mat. Med. No. 52, 1141 [Therapeutic 
Properties of Saw Palmetto]. — Rusby, Bastedo & Coblentz, Alumni 
Jour. N. Y. College of Pharmacy, ii. 169 [The Pharmacology of Saw 
Palmetto].) 
The stem of Serenoa serrulata contains tannin in considerable 
quantities, and excellent leather has been prepared from it, al- 
though the large amount of red coloring matter associated with 
the tannin has a tendency to make a dark leather, and the manu- 
facture of “syrup of tannin,” an extract made from Serenoa serru- 
lata and sold a few years ago in northern markets, has been aban- 
doned. (See Trimble, Garden and Forest, ix. 182 [The Tannins of 
the Palmettos] ; Am. Jour. Pharm. |xviii. 397.) The flowers pro- 
duce a large amount of nectar, which is an important bee-food, 
and the superior honey made from them is sold as Palmetto honey. 
(See Rusby, Bastedo & Coblentz, J. c.171.) The collection and 
shipment to the northern states of the crowns of fresh leaves of the 
Saw-Palmetto for the decoration of churches and dwelling-houses 
has recently become a Florida industry of some importance. 
2 Most of the fungi which have been recorded as occurring on 
Of the seventeen 
They 
Meliola palmicola, Winter, 
Serenoa are found on the petioles of the leaves. 
species recorded some are found also on Sabal Palmetto. 
are all small, and do not cause disease. 
infests the leaves, covering them with a sooty black web. 
3 See vii. 108. : 
