ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 317 



as a reed (as in Piritu, Kunthia montana, and the Mexican Cor ypha 

 nana); sometimes swelling towards the base (as in Cocos); some- 

 times smooth, and sometimes scaly (Palma de covija o de sombrero, 

 in the Llanos); sometimes armed with spines (as Corozo de Cumana 

 and Macanilla de Caripe), the long spines being distributed with 

 much regularity in concentric rings." 



" Characteristic differences are also furnished in some species by 

 roots which, springing from the stem at about a foot or a foot and a 

 half above the ground, either raise the stem as it were upon a scaf- 

 folding, or surround it with thick buttresses. I have seen Viverras, 

 and even very small monkeys, pass underneath this kind of scaffold- 

 ing formed by the roots of the Caryota. Often the shaft or stem is 

 swollen only in the middle, being more slender above and below, as 

 in the Palma Heal of the Island of Cuba. The leaves are sometimes 

 of a dark and shining green (as in the Mauritia and the Cocoa-nut 

 palm) ; sometimes of a silvery white on the under side (as in the 

 slender Fan-palm, Corypha miraguama, which we found in the 

 Harbor of Trinidad de Cuba). Sometimes the middle of the fan or 

 palmate leaf is ornamented with concentric yellowish or bluish 

 stripes like a peacock's tail; as in the thorny Mauritia which Bon- 

 pland discovered on the banks of the Rio Atabapo." 



" The direction of the leaves is a character not less important than 

 their form and color. The leaflets (foliola) are sometimes arranged 

 like the teeth of a comb, set on in the same plane, and close to each 

 other, and having a very rigid parenchyma (as in Cocos, and in 

 Phosnix the genus to which the Date belongs) ; whence the fine 

 play of light from the sunbeams falling on the upper surface of the 

 leaves (which is of a fresher verdure in Cocoa, and of a more dead 

 and ashy hue in the Date-palm) ; sometimes the leaves are flag-like, 

 of a thinner and more flexible texture, and curl towards the ex- 

 tremities (as in Jagua, Palma Real del Sinu, Palma Real de Cuba, 

 and Piritu dell' Orinoco). The peculiarly majestic character of 

 palms is given not only by their lofty stems, but also in a very high 

 degree by the direction of their leaves. It is part of the beauty of 

 any particular species of palms that its leaves should possess this 

 aspiring character; and not only in youth, as is the case in the 

 Date-palm, but also throughout the duration of the life of the tree. 



27* 



