252 TROPICAL NATURE 



oil from the cocoa-nut and baccaba palm, salt from the fruit 

 of a South American palm (Leopoldinia major), while the 

 terminal bud or " cabbage " of many species is an excellent 

 and nutritious vegetable ; so that palms may be said to supply 

 bread, oil, sugar, salt, fruit, and vegetables. Oils for various 

 other purposes are made from several distinct palms, especially 

 from the celebrated oil palm of West Africa, while wax is 

 secreted from the leaves of some South American species; 

 the resin called Dragon's blood is the product of one of the 

 rattan palms. The fruit of the Areca palm is the " betel-nut " 

 so universally chewed by the Malays as a gentle stimulant, 

 and is their substitute for the opium of the Chinese, the 

 tobacco of Europeans, and the coca-leaf of South America. 



For thatching purposes the leaves of palms are invaluable, 

 and are universally used wherever they are abundant ; and 

 the petioles or leaf stalks, often fifteen or twenty feet long, 

 are used as rafters, or when fastened together with pegs form 

 doors, shutters, partitions, or even the walls of entire houses. 

 They are wonderfully light and strong, being formed of a 

 dense pith covered with a hard rind or bark, and when split 

 up and pegged together serve to make many kinds of boxes, 

 which, when covered with the broad leaves of a species of screw- 

 pine and painted or stained of various colours, are very strong 

 and serviceable as well as very ornamental. Ropes and cables 

 are woven from the black fibrous matter that fringes the 

 leaves of the sugar-palm and some other species, while fine 

 strings of excellent quality, used even for bow-strings, fishing- 

 lines, and hammocks, are made of fibres obtained from the 

 unopened leaves of some American species. The fibrous 

 sheath at the base of the leaves of the cocoa-nut palm is so 

 compact and cloth-like that it is used for a variety of purposes, 

 as for strainers, for wrappers, and to make very good hats. 

 The great woody spathes of the larger palms serve as natural 

 baskets, as cradles, or even as cooking-vessels in which water 

 may be safely boiled. The trunks form excellent posts and 

 fencing, and when split make good flooring. Some species 

 are used for bows, others for blow-pipes ; the smaller palm- 

 spines are sometimes used as needles or to make fish-hooks, 

 and the larger as arrows. To describe in detail all the uses 

 to which palm-trees and their products are applied in various 



