480 



ENDOGENOUS OR MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



torches, and for writing upon ; the stalk and midrib for oars ; their 

 ashes yield abundance of potash ; the juice of the flowers and 

 stems (replete with sugar, which is sometimes separated under the 

 name of Jagery) is fermented into a kind of wine, or distilled into 

 Arrack; from its spathes (as from some other Palms), when 

 wounded, flows a grateful laxative beverage, known in India by 

 the name of Toddy ; the rind of the fruit is used for culinary ves- 

 sels ; its tough, fibrous, outer portion is made into very strong cor- 

 dage ( Coir rope) ; and an excellent fixed oil is copiously expressed 

 from the kernel. Sago is procured from the trunks of many 

 Palms, but chiefly from species of Sagus of Eastern India. Canes 

 and Rattans are the slender, often prostrate, sterns of species of 

 Calamus. The Phytelephas of South America yields the larger 

 sort of nuts, the hard and white albumen of which is the vegetable 

 ivory, now so largely used by the turner. 



1063 1064 1065 1060 



1061 



899. Ord, Araceae (the Arum Family}. Herbs, with a fleshy 

 corm or rhizoma, occasionally shrubby or climbing plants in the 

 tropics; the leaves sometimes compound or divided, frequently 

 with more or less reticulated veins. Flowers mostly on a spadix 

 (often naked at the extremity) usually surrounded by a spathe. 

 Flowers commonly moncEcious, and destitute of envelopes, or with 

 a single perianth. Ovary one- to several-celled, with one or more 



FIG. 1059 Branch of the inflorescence of Chamaerops Hystrix (Blue Palmetto). 1060. A 

 sterile flower. 1061. Perfect flower, with the calyx and corolla removed. 1062. Same, with 

 three of the stamens removeJ, so as more distinctly to show the three somewhat united carpels. 

 1063. One of the carpels enlarged, seen laterally. 1064. Same, with a section of its inner face, 

 showing the ovule or young seed. 1065. Vertical section of a young cocoa-nut, showing the 

 hollow albumen ; arid also the small embryo in a separate little cavity. 1066. Section of a 

 Palm-stem. 



