38 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. PALMA, 
rather lustrous, one or rarely two or three-lobed, raised on a short stout stem adjacent to the remnants 
of the style; pericarp separable into three coats, the outer thin, sweet, and fleshy, mesocarp dry and 
spongy, closely investing the membranaceous inner coat lustrous on the inner surface. Seed depressed- 
globose, free, erect, marked on the side by the prominent micropyle, depressed near the minute basal 
light-colored hilum by a shallow pit rugose on the margins ; testa thin, light or dark chestnut-brown, 
and lustrous; raphe ventral, its branches obsolete; albumen uniform, horny, penetrated by a broad 
shallow basal cavity filled by the thickening of the testa. Embryo minute, dorsal. 
Sabal is confined to the New World, where it is distributed from the Bermuda Islands and the 
south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America through the West Indies to Venezuela.? Of the 
seven species which are now distinguished, four inhabit the United States ; two of these are trees, and 
the others are acaulescent.? The type has survived from the period when Palm-trees abounded in 
North America and Europe, and traces of its ancestors have been found in the lower eocene of western 
Europe and in the lignitic formations of Colorado; during the lower miocene period a large Sabal-like 
tree inhabited Europe as far north as 55 degrees, and existed in Italy until the later miocene.! 
The large succulent leaf-buds of the arborescent species are cooked and eaten as a vegetable, 
although their removal kills the trees. 
Coarse hats, mats, and baskets are manufactured from the 
leaves, which also afford durable thatch for the roofs of buildings. 
Pieces of the spongy part of the 
stem are used as a substitute for scrubbing-brushes, and in the southern United States brushes are made 
with the stout strong fibres of the sheaths of the leaf-stalks. 
In North America dangerous insect enemies are unknown to Sabal, and it does not suffer seriously 
from fungal diseases.® 
The generic name is of uncertain origin. 
1 In germinating, the apex of the cotyledon is transformed into 
a spongy body, through which the albumen is absorbed, and the 
thick conical caulicle penetrates the pericarp of the fruit, carrying 
with it the plumule inclosed in the free cylindrical base of the 
cotyledon and descends two or three inches into the ground. From 
the interior part of the base of the cotyledon a protuberance is 
developed, which grows rapidly toward the surface, and is at last 
ruptured by the plumule, around which it forms a cylindrical 
sheath. The first leaf, which is alternate with the cotyledon, is 
white and scale-like, and incloses the base of the second leaf ; this, 
like the others formed during the first year, is lanceolate and en- 
tire. The caulicle withers, and disappears usually soon after the 
appearance of the second leaf, and a thick conical body appears at 
the base of the plumule, which, descending into the ground, forms 
a thickened club-shaped yellow caudex marked by the scars of 
fallen leaves, furnished with numerous slender tough roots, and 
closely pressed against the ascending axis of the plant. (For the 
germination of Sabal, see Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. i. t. Z ii. £. 3. — 
Micheels, Recherches sur les Jeunes Palmiers, 59, t. 1, £.2; Holm, 
Mem. Torrey Bot. Club, ii. 76, t. xiii. f. 84, 86.) 
” Martius, /. ¢. iii. 245. — Kunth, Enum. iii. 245. — Karsten, Fl. 
Colomb. ii. 137 (Trithrinax).— Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 514. 
8 Sabal glabra. 
Chamerops glabra, Miller, Dict. ed. 8, No. 2 ( 1768). 
Corypha minor, Jacquin, Hort. Vind. iii. 8, t. 8 (1776). — Mur- 
ray, Syst. Veg. ed. 14, 984. — Lamarck, Dict. ii. 131. 
Corypha pumila, Walter, Fl. Cur. 119 (1788). 
Chameerops acaulis, Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Am. i. 207 (1803). — 
Shecut, Fl. Car. i. 383. 
Sabal Adansoni, Guersent, Bull. Soc. Philom. iii. 206, t. 25 
(1803). — Bot. Mag. xxxv. t. 1434.— Trattinick, Archiv. t. 362, 
362°. — Pursh, Fi. Am. Sept. i. 239. — Nuttall, Gen. i. 230. — Roe- 
mer & Schultes, Syst. vii. pt. ii. 1485.— Croom, Am. Jour. Sci. 
xxvi. 315.— Martius, J. ¢. iii. 246, t. 103, f. 2, i. t. Y, £.4.— 
Dietrich, Syn. ii. 1201. — Kunth, J. ¢. iii. 246.— Chapman, Fi. 
438. — Curtis, Rep. Geolog. Surv. N. Car. 1860, iii. 65. 
Rhapis acaulis, Willdenow, Spec. iv. pt. ii. 1093 (1805). — 
Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, v. 474. 
Sabal minor, Persoon, Syn. i. 399 (1805). — Sprengel, Syst. ii. 
137. 
Sabal pumila, Elliott, Sk. i. 430 (1817). 
Sabal glabra is a low plant of the southern coast region of the 
United States, with a short subterranean stem, glaucous fan-shaped, 
slightly pinnatifid leaves nearly circular in outline, an erect spadix 
much longer than the leaves, and small fruit. 
The second shrubby species, Sabal Etonia, Nash (Bull. Torrey 
Bot. Club, xxiii. 99 [1896]) is distinguished by its elongated con- 
torted root-stalk, small thin orbicular deeply cleft leaves, short 
spadix, and large fruit. 
4 Lesquereux, Rep. U.S. Geolog. Surv. vii. 112, t. 11, f. 3, 3%, t. 
12, f. 1, 2.—Saporta, Origine Paléontologique des Arbres, 118. — 
Zittel, Handb. Palcontolog. ii. 372. 
5 The most interesting fungi botanically which attack the Palms 
in this country are species of Graphiola which belong to a genus 
usually placed in the order of Smuts, although in certain pecul- 
iarities they differ considerably from the typical members of the 
order ; they form small black powdery tufts or cups sparsely scat- 
tered over the surface of the leaves, Graphiola congesta, Berkeley 
& Ravenel, attacking the leaves of Sabal Palmetto. 
In the tropics the leaves of Palms are frequently covered with a 
sooty black growth, caused by different species of Meliola, of 
which two species, Aeliola palmicola, Winter, and Meliola furcata, 
Léveillé, are found on Sabal in North America. In addition to 
these, Spherella sabaligena, Ellis & Everhart, Venturia sabalicola, 
Ellis & Everhart, Helminthosporium Palmetto, Gerard, and Phyllo- 
sticta Palmetto, Ellis & Everhart, have been noticed on the leaves 
of Sabal Palmetto. 
