30 
SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 
PALME. 
regia inhabits southern Florida, Cuba, and the Isthmus of Panama, Oreodoxa oleracea: the Antilles, 
Oreodoxa Sancona* the mountain valleys of Colombia, and Oreodoxa frigida, a small alpine tree, the 
Andes of Ecuador. 
The durable trunks of three of the species are used for wharf-piles and in construction ; and the 
buds are cooked and eaten as a vegetable. 
The West Indian species are stately, graceful, magnificent 
trees, and are now cultivated in all tropical countries.’ 
The generic name, from dpoc and dd£a, alludes to the lofty stature and mountain home of some of 
the species. 
1 Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. iii. 166, t. 156, f. 1, 2, ; t. 163 (1833- 
50). — Kunth, Enum. iii. 181. — Spach, Hist. Vég. xii. 67.— A. 
Richard, Fl. Cub. ii. 276. —Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 517. 
Areca oleracea, Jacquin, Hist. Stirp. Am. 278, t. 170 (1763); 
Hist. Select. Stirp. Am. 135, t. 235. — Linneus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12, 
i. 730. — Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. i. 596. — Lunan, Hort. Jam. i. 
133. — Maycock, Fl. Barb. 371. 
Euterpe Caribea, Sprengel, Syst. ii. 140 (1825). 
One of the tallest and most beautiful of American Palms, 
Oreodora oleracea, the Cabbage Palm of the Antilles, sends up 
a stout trunk, sometimes nearly two hundred feet tall, surmounted 
by a crown of long arching graceful leaves frequently twenty feet 
in length and nearly six feet broad. Young trees are often 
destroyed by removing the terminal buds, which are eaten raw in 
salads, boiled like cabbages, or pickled. The clasping sheaths of 
the petioles serve as cradles for negro children, and are split into 
surgeons’ splints; their thin inner coat when removed from the 
living leaf and dried resembles vellum, and can be used as a 
substitute for writing-paper, and from their fibres mats are woven. 
A sort of sago is manufactured from the pith of the stem, and an 
oil is obtained from the seeds. The stems split longitudinally, and, 
hollowed out by the removal of the spongy inner portion, are used 
for gutters ; and the thin hard rind-like exterior is manufactured 
into canes, ramrods, and many small articles. (See Seemann, Pop- 
ular History of the Palms, 277.) 
The tall columnar stem and enormous crown of waving leaves of 
this Palm have delighted all travelers in the Antilles, and for two 
centuries and a half their chronicles have praised its beauty and 
extolled its value. (See Rochefort, Histoire Naturelle et Morale des 
Isles Antilles, 78. — Ligon, A true and exact History of the Island 
of Barbados, 125, t. — Labat, Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de  Amée- 
rique, i. 420. — Sloane, Cat. Pl. Jam. 176 ; Nat. Hist. Jam. ii. 115, 
t. 215. — Browne, Nat. Hist. Jam. 342.) 
2 Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. i. 304 
(1815). — Kunth, Syn. Pl. Equin. i. 306 ; Enum. iii. 182. — Roemer 
& Schultes, Syst. vii. pt. ii. 1491. — Spach, J. c. 69. 
@nocarpus Sancona, Sprengel, J. c. (1825). 
Discovered by Humboldt on the mountains near the city of 
Carthagena, Oreodoxa Sancona is remarkable for its lofty stem, 
sometimes more than one hundred and fifty feet in height, and the 
durability of its wood, which is used in construction and is said to 
be so hard that it may turn the edge of a sharp axe. (See Kerchove, 
Les Palmers, 262.) 
3 Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, 1. c. (1815). — Kunth, Syn. Pl. 
Equin. i. 307 ; Enum. iii. 183. — Roemer & Schultes, /. c. 
Gnocarpus frigidus, Sprengel, 1. c. (1825). 
One of the most alpine of Palms, Oreodoza frigida is not 
uncommon at elevations of ten thousand feet above the sea on the 
rocky slopes of the Andes of Zuindien, forming a stem only a few 
feet in height. 
4 H. Wendland, Index Palmarum, 31. 
The great avenue of Palms in the Botanic Garden of Rio de 
Janeiro, which all travelers praise, is composed of Oreodoxa ole- 
racea. (See L. & E. C. Agassiz, Journey to Brazil, 61, t.) 
