CABBAGE-TREE. 



S33 



several years, when, on the ground that their former 

 grant did not afford them sufficient space, the church 

 arid town of Byland were granted to them for the 

 purpose of building an abbey. Here they were 

 too near the abbey of Rievaulx, being within the 

 sound of its bells ; and as there were some other 

 inconveniences attached to the place, De Mowbray 

 granted them another piece of land, on which to 

 erect their monastery ; and they then built a small 

 church, a cloister, and houses. Their possessions 

 were soon considerably increased, and they added 

 to the value of them by clearing the woodland and 

 draining the marshes. They removed, in 1177, a 

 little to the eastward, where the abbey of Byland 

 was built and dedicated to the virgin Mary. 



Byland abbey was not included in the number of 



monasteries which were first dissolved, and by the 

 king's letters-patent, dated January 28, 1537, it 

 was refounded ; but two years afterwards it was 

 surrendered, when the abbot and monks received 

 pensions. There were seven bells in the abbey, 

 arid it contained 516 ounces of plate. The lead 

 which was stripped off the building amounted to 

 100 fodder, and, with the bells and plate, was sold 

 for the king's use. 



All that remains of Byland is comparatively a 

 fragment, but it is sufficient to show that the abbey 

 must have been a fine specimen of church architec- 

 ture. The doorway is richly ornamented and the 

 windows elegantly formed. The population of the 

 township of Byland-cum-Membris, in the parish of 

 Cox wold, amounted in 1841, to 282. 



C 





CABBAGE-TREE; a splendid tree, to be found 

 in the West Indies, the Areca Oberacea of Lin- 

 riiEus. The trunk is usually about six or seven 

 inches in diameter, and it grows straight as an 

 arrow to the height of 150 or 200 feet. The sub- 

 stance of the tree, for about two or three inches in 

 depth, is of a dark colour, and extremely hard and 

 solid ; within this is a rather white pith inter- 

 mingled with small veins of a more ligneous nature. 

 The hue of the bark resembles that of the ash, 

 and is faintly marked at the distance of every four 

 or five inches by the vestigia of the branches that 

 have fallen. The appearance of the bark continues 

 the same till within about twenty or thirty feet of 

 the summit of the tree, where it changes to a 

 beautiful deep sea-green, which colour prevails to 

 the top. About five feet above the commence- 

 ment of this colour, numerous branches encircle the 

 stem, the lowermost spreading horizontally with 

 great regularity, while the superior branches incline 

 wavingly downwards with all the graceful elegance 

 of so many plumes of feathers. The branches, 

 which attain when full grown a length of about 

 fifteen feet, are closely set on the stem alternately 

 rising one above another. Their broad curved 

 sockets completely surround the body of the tree, 

 which is again visible among the upper branches, 

 and is there enveloped in an upright green conic 

 spire, which beautifully terminates its majestic 

 height. On the upper side the branches are slightly 

 grooved and rounded beneath. An immense num- 

 ber of pinnated leaves proceed from the branches, 

 some of which are three feet in length and an inch 

 and a half in breadth, gradually narrowing towards 

 their points, and decreasing in length as they ap- 

 proach the extremities of the branches. The up- 

 per side of the leaf is smooth and shining a strong 

 and prominent rib in the middle of each affords it 

 support on the lower side. It is part of the eco- 

 nomy of this tree that the inferior or lower branch 

 drops off monthly, bearing with it an exfoliated 

 circular lamina of the green part of the stem; 

 whenever this occurs, the green conic spire which 

 arises from among the superior branches, partially 



bursts and sends forth a young branch, which re- 

 mains the uppermost till the same process is again 

 renewed, so that the spire, the common parent of 

 all, thus continually supplies the loss of the lower 

 branches, and the beauty of the tree remains un- 

 diminished. The green-coloured part of the stem 

 differs not only in hue but in substance from that 

 of the other part, as it is formed of several lamina 

 or separate layers of a tough bark of a like nature, 

 about a quarter of an inch in thickness, which are 

 arranged closely over each other. All the branches, 

 as they successively grow to be old, are united by 

 the broad socket of the footstalk to this outer 

 lamina or layer ; some time before the lower branch 

 is quite withered, the green circular layer, which 

 before appeared a solid part of the tree, divides 

 vertically, preparatory to its falling off with the 

 branch to which it is strongly attached, leaving 

 the next succeeding layer apparently a constituent 

 part of the tree. The first, second, and third, and 

 sometimes the fourth of these lamince are green on 

 the exterior and white within. The remainder of 

 them have the outer side of a bright lemon colour, and 

 the interior white. The part called the cabbage 

 consists of the inner snow-white flakes, which con- 

 tain a considerable portion of oil ; they have some- 

 thing the flavour of an almond, and are esteemed a 

 sweet and agreeable esculent ; they are eaten raw, 

 fried, or boiled, and, when they have undergone the 

 latter process, are not unlike cabbage. Cutting 

 the cabbage destroys the tree, which may be the 

 growth of half a century. The cabbage is conse- 

 quently a dish principally seen at entertainments, and 

 two negroes are usually dispatched to the mountains 

 where these trees abound, to cut what are required. 

 The blossom displays itself at that part of the 

 stem of the tree where the two colours unite. On 

 its first appearance it is a husky spatha, growing to 

 a length of about twenty inches, which is full of 

 small white stringy filaments, with alternate pro- 

 tuberant knobs, not unlike a fringe of coarse white 

 knotted thread; farinaceous yellow seed in embryo, 

 resembling fine saw-dust, is abundantly dispersed 

 among the filaments, which, after they are cleared 



