TREES OF AMERICA. 165 



" But how do they get them, Uncle Philip? 

 Nobody could ever climb such a tree as that, 

 I should think. But perhaps it does not grow 

 very high." 



"But it does, though, forty or fifty feet; 

 and when the people want to get the branches 

 they have to cut the tree down." 



" Well, it seems to me that is taking a 

 great deal of trouble." 



" So it is ; and a great waste too, for the 

 cabbage-tree grows very slowly ; I have heard 

 that it is more than a hundred years in reach- 

 ing its full size. It belongs to the class or 

 genus of the palms or palmettoes, and they 

 are all slow growing trees." 



" Oh, Uncle Philip, is it from the leaves of 

 the cabbage-tree that the palmetto fans are 

 made, that are sold in the stores ?" 



" No, those fans are made of the leaf of 

 another kind of palm, that grows in Africa 

 and Asia. The cabbage-tree is the only 

 species of palm that is found in the United 

 States, and it grows only in the most southern 

 parts of the country. As you see in the pic- 

 ture, the trunk is smooth, and almost of the 

 same size all the way up ; and its straightness 

 and height, with the large spreading summit 



