PALM PALMYRA. 



401 



execution of the sentence. Officers of high rank, 

 however, have declared, that not Napoleon, but Ber- 

 thier, is chargeable with this outrage. It had been 

 proved that Palm had not sold one copy of the pam- 

 phlet. Palm was not the only German shot after 

 hasty military trials ordered by the French marshals. 



PALM ; an ancient long measure, taken from the 

 extent of the hand. The Roman palm was of two 

 kinds. The great palm, taken from the length of 

 the hand, answered to our span, and contained twelve 

 digits or fingers' breadths, or nine Roman inches, 

 equal to about eight and a half English inches. 

 The small palm, from the breadth of the hand, con- 

 tained four digits or lingers, equal to about three 

 English inches. The Greek palm, or doron, was also 

 of two kinds : the small contained four fingers, equal 

 to little more than three inches : the great palm con- 

 tained five fingers. The Greek double palm, called 

 dichas, was large also in proportion. The modern 

 palm is different in different places where it is used. 

 It contains, at Rome, eight inches three and a half 

 lines ; at Naples, according to Riccioli, eight inches : 

 according to others, eight inches seven lines ; at 

 Genoa, nine inches nine lines ; at Morocco and Fez, 

 seven inches two lines ; in Languedoc, and some 

 other parts of France, nine inches nine lines : the 

 English palm is three inches. 



PALM, the tree. See Palms. 



PALMA, GIACOMO, surnamed Vecchio (the old), a 

 pupil of Titian, and one of the most famous painters 

 of the sixteenth century, was born at Bergamo, in 

 1518, and died between 1564 and 1574, at Venice, 

 which possesses excellent pictures by him (e. g. the 

 St Barbara). 



PALMA. See Canaries. 



PALMA. See Majorca. 



PALMA CHRISTI ; a name frequently applied 

 to the castor oil plant. 



PALMETTO. In the Southern States of Ame- 

 rica, this name is frequently given to the cabbage- 

 tree, a species of palm, growing along the Atlantic 

 coast from about lat. 35 to the extremity of Florida. 

 It attains the height of forty or fifty feet, and is by 

 far the tallest, as well as the most northern, of our 

 palms. The summit of the stem is crowned with a 

 tuft of large palmated leaves, varying in length and 

 breadth from one to five feet, and supported on long 

 foot-stalks, which give it a beautiful and majestic 

 appearance. Before these leaves are developed, 

 they are folded like a fan ; at their base and in the 

 centre of the stem are three or four ounces of a white, 

 compact, and tender substance, which is eaten with 

 oil and vinegar, and somewhat resembles the cabbage 

 in taste, but is neither highly nutritious nor peculiarly 

 agreeable, and, moreover, is attended with the de- 

 struction of a vegetable which has perhaps been a 

 century in growing. The flowers are small, green- 

 ish, disposed in long clusters, and are succeeded by 

 a black inesculent fruit, about as large as a pea. 

 The cabbage-palm in the United States appears to 

 be confined to the immediate vicinity of the sea. 

 Michaux, however, mentions two stocks observed by 

 him in Florida, at the distance of forty or fifty miles 

 in the interior. The same author met with it in 

 Bermuda, and supposed it to be found in the Ba- 

 hamas and along the shore of the gulf of Mexico ; 

 but it is unknown in Louisiana, and is not found beyond 

 the limits of the United States. The wood, though 

 extremely porous, in the Southern States is preferred 

 to every other for the construction of wharves, on 

 account of its being secure from the attacks of sea- 

 worms ; and has been found peculiarly suitable for 

 the construction efforts, as it closes, without splitting, 

 on the passage of a ball. The slowness of its 

 growth will always discourage its propagation. 



PALMS ; a natural family of plants, the pride of 

 tropical climates, and which, more than any oilier, 

 contributes to give a peculiar and imposing character 

 to the vegetation of those regions. Their lofty, 

 straight, and unbranching trunks, crowned at the 

 summit by a tuft of large radiating leaves, gives 

 them an aspect entirely unique, and far surpassing 

 that of other trees in majesty. Aside from the gran- 

 deur of their appearance, many of them hardly yield 

 to any other vegetables in useful properties. The 

 species are numerous, but are not well understood ; 

 and many fruits exist in collections which cannot be 

 referred to known genera. They belong to the 

 monocotyledonous division of plants, and have their 

 parts arranged in threes, or one of the multiples of 

 that number. The calyx has six divisions, more or 

 less profound ; the stamens are six in number ; and 

 the fruit consists of a berry or drupe, composed of a 

 substance sometimes hard and scaly, but more often 

 fleshy or fibrous, surrounding three, or, usually, a 

 single, one-seeded nut. The stem is simple, or very 

 rarely branching, arid is sustained by a mass of 

 fibrous roots at the base. Though usually attaining 

 the stature of a tree, and sometimes ascending to a 

 very great height, in some species, the stem rises 

 only a few inches above the surface of the ground. 

 This stem is cylindrical, but, internally, the fibres 

 are arranged in fascicles, and not in concentric cir- 

 cles, as with trees generally. The centre is soft, 

 while the circumference is firm and hard like horn. 

 In these respects, tl.e palms are analogous to other 

 monocotyledonous vegetables. This stem is covered 

 externally with the sheaths of the fallen leaves, or 

 with their cicatrices, and is terminated by a tuft of 

 pinnate or flabelliform leaves. From the micUt of 

 these arises a simple or branching spadix, on which 

 the numerous small flowers are disposed, and which 

 at first is enveloped in one or several spathze, or 

 sheaths. Many of the palms appear to be confined 

 within narrow limits, and it has been remarked that, 

 whenever a district is characterized by striking 

 peculiarities of soil or climate, it appears to be inha- 

 bited by peculiar species. All the palms are not 

 strictly confined within the tropics, but a few inhabit 

 the warm regions on their borders. Among the 

 more useful of the palms may be mentioned the 

 cocoa-nut, the sago, and the date. 



PA LMS, ORDER OF. See Fruit bearing Society. 



PALM SUNDAY ; the last Sunday before Easter, 

 on which Christ's entry into Jerusalem, when palms 

 were strewed before him, is celebrated. Formerly, 

 a wooden ass, with the figure of Christ on it, was 

 drawn on rollers in procession, because Christ entered 

 Jerusalem on an ass. It is still celebrated with much 

 solemnity by the Catholics, and branches are strewed 

 in the churches. 



PALMYRA ; a Syrian city, famous in ancient 

 times, capital of Palmyrene, which for a short time 

 formed a powerful state. It was at an early period 

 called Tadmor (the city of palms), of which the Latin 

 name is a translation. The origin of this city is of 

 remote antiquity. It was important as the bulwark 

 of Judaea against the wandering tribes from the 

 Euphrates ; and, as the emporium of the, commerce 

 of Eastern and Western Asia, it was a large and 

 opulent city in the time of Trajan, who subjected the 

 whole province to the Roman power. It was situated 

 in a valley with a southern exposure, in the midst of 

 a beautiful palm grove in the desert. It was adorned 

 with magnificent palaces, whose ruins, though it has 

 been twice destroyed, still excite admiration. It was 

 sacked for the first time under the reign of the cele- 

 brated Zenobia, by the emperor Aurelian, in 275, 

 and a second time by the Saracens, in 744. In the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, the ruins were dis- 

 2c 



