304 CONSERVATIVE ORGANS. [LECT. VII. 



Owing to the mode of growth, also, which has 

 just been described, the stem is always naked, 

 columnar, and terminated with leaves and fruc- 

 tification in the form of a magnificent crown, as 

 exemplified in the Palms. The stipe, therefore, 

 or this kind of monocotyledonous stem, may be 

 regarded as a fasces of ligneous vascular rods 

 imbedded in cellular substance, and terminating 

 in leaves * : and its vitality being, in a great de- 

 gree, dependent on the herbaceous part, if the 

 central bud, or cabbage-}-, as it is commonly 

 called, be cut off, the whole plant immediately 

 dies. In tropical climates, some kinds of Ferns 

 rise with a stipe resembling that of the Palms ; 

 but this appears to be, according to Mirbel, " a 



* The height to which some Palms arise, without increasing 

 in diameter, is truly astonishing. Thus the Ptychosperma 

 gracilis rises more than sixty feet above the surface of the 

 ground, with a stem not four inches in thickness. The eleva- 

 tion of the Areca oleracea is often not less than one hundred 

 and eighty feet ; and " although," says Mirbel, " its diameter 

 " is greater than that of the Ptychosperma, yet, it is certain 

 " that it never increases in thickness." Elem. de Phys. veg. 

 t. i. p. 12. Its stem is, nevertheless, thicker in the middle 

 than either at the base or the summit, when the Palm has 

 attained to a certain age ; which is justly ascribed to its vegeta- 

 tive powers being more vigorous at the middle period of its ex- 

 istence. 



f The terminal bud of the Areca oleracea is boiled and 

 eaten as a delicacy, under the name of Cabbage ; and the plant 

 is called the Cabbage Palm. 



