SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. PALME. 
42 
The earliest description of Sabal Palmetto appears in Catesby’s Hortus Britano-Americanus, 
published in 1763.’ According to Aiton,’ it was not introduced into English gardens until 1809, and, 
although occasionally cultivated in the cities of the south Atlantic states, it is still exceedingly rare in 
gardens.° 
The survival of Sabal Palmetto, with its tall columnar trunk and broad crown of foliage, the 
most boreal of existing Palm-trees in a region where the flora is northern in its predominating types, 
gives special interest to the coast of the southeastern United States, where it is the most conspicuous 
feature of the vegetation.’ 
consisting of the closely imbricated young leaf-stalks, is cut off and 
trimmed down to a diameter of about eight inches. In this form 
the bud is received at the factory, where the soft edible core, con- 
sisting of the youngest leaves, is removed, leaving a cylinder with 
walls about three inches in thickness. This is boiled and shredded 
by machinery specially devised for the purpose, and when the fibre 
is dried, it is ready for the brush-maker. One factory in Jackson- 
ville, Florida, uses weekly 7,500 buds obtained principally from the 
west coast of the peninsula. As only young and healthy trees are 
used, and as the removal of the bud kills the tree, the industry is a 
wasteful and expensive one, destined to exterminate the Palmetto ; 
and its existence is also threatened by the use for culinary pur- 
poses of the cabbage, or terminal bud, which is considered a great 
delicacy by the negroes of the southern states. 
1 Palma Brasiliensis prunifera folio plicatili seu flabelli forma cau- 
dice squammato, 40. 
2 Aiton, Hort. Kew. ed. 2, v. 490. 
* It is remarkable that Sabal Palmetto, which might be expected 
to be the hardiest of all arborescent Palms, has remained so rare in 
gardens. A plant has long been cultivated in the Palm House of 
the Royal Gardens at Kew, in England, and the species is said to 
be established in Ceylon. In California, where nearly all the 
Palms of temperate regions grow vigorously, it has not proved a 
success ; and it appears to be unknown in the gardens of southern 
France and the Riviera, although it is said to flourish in those of 
southern Italy. ‘(See Sprenger, Bull. Soc. Tosc. Ort. xiv. 318. See, 
also, Garden and Forest, ii. 186 ; v. 158, 215.) 
4 On June 28, 1776, a force of less than one hundred Caro- 
linians, under command of Moultrie, protected by the rude fortifi- 
cation on Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor, made of the 
trunks of the Palmetto, repulsed the attack of a British fleet under 
command of Sir Peter Parker, and when the state of South Caro- 
lina was organized, the state seal, which was first used in May, 
1777, was made to commemorate this victory. A Palm-tree grow- 
ing erect on the seashore represents the strength of the fort, while 
at its base an Oak-tree torn from the ground and deprived of its 
branches recalls the British fleet built of oak timber overcome by 
the Palmetto. (See John Drayton, Memoirs of the American Revo- 
lution, ii. 372.) 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Prate DVII. Sapat Patmerro. 
Pow Nh 
e 
A pistil, enlarged. 
DO WNAD 1 
. A seed, enlarged. 
fuk 
co) 
Diagram of a flower. 
A flower, enlarged. 
Portion of a flowering spadix, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 
A corolla, with stamens displayed, enlarged. 
- Portion of a fruiting spadix, natural size. 
. Vertical section of a fruit, enlarged. 
. An embryo, much magnified. 
11. A leaf, upper surface, much reduced. 
12. Diagram of a section of one of the divisions of a leaf. 
13. A seedling, natural size. 
