PLANTS OF BERMUDA. 81 



at i?embroke Hall invariably attract attentioi^ : their stems rise like 

 granite columns to a height of fifty or sixcy feet and terminate in a 

 graceful, feather-like plume : the terminal bud i.s eaten in the West 

 Indies. The Cocoa-nut palms [Cocos nacifi-m) are usuallj'- to be seen 

 in scanty groups of two or three, their less graceful stems rising uj) 

 gaunt, bare and irregular above the marshy undershrub or near 

 some country cottage. The Gru-gru palm {A.stroraritcni aurcimi)^ a 

 pricklj'^ shrub, with golden down beneath the leaves, may be seen in 

 shrubberies, notably at jMount Langton and Pembroke Hall, where 

 the Catechu palm {Arcca Catechu), a South Sea Island species called 

 Fritckardia Pacijica^ the Date palm {Phwnix dacti/Ufem), Martinesia 

 carijotoefoUa, RhapisfaheUiformis, and a species of Palmetto {Chaman'ops 

 fortunii), may be seen ; but as these palms do not appear to mature 

 their fruit in this latitude, they have not increased beyond those 

 plants originally introduced. 



I. S. umhracuUfera (Palmetto). Steui stout, erect, cylindrical, 

 eight to ten feet high, rough with longitudinal cracks and with the 

 ring-like scars of fallen leaves ; leaves denselj^ crowded at the sum- 

 mit, petioles four to five feet long, not spiny, split at the sheathing 

 base, blade of leaf smooth, fan- shaped, four to four and a half feet 

 long and rather more in widtli, cut to the middle into about fifty 

 slender, bifid segments, with loose fibres hanging between ; spadix 

 axillary, much branched, half as long as the leaves, flowers sessile, 

 the three inner leaves of perianth three times longer than the outer ; 

 berries greenish -black, shining, globose, depressed, one-third of an 

 inch in diameter. Distribution, Bahamas, where it appears to grow 

 much higher; habitat, generally distributed throughout the Islands. 

 Flowers white ; August and September. 



This Palm varies much in appearance according to the conditions 

 of soil, &c., under which it is grown : in marshes it is stout and 

 vigorous, while occasionally some old solitary tree may be seen 

 rising to a height of twenty or thirty feet ; on dry rocky hills, how- 

 ever, it becomes much dwarfed, and looks like a distinct species, — 

 these, however, rarely appear to produce fruit, and at the base of 

 the hills merge into the more ample form. 



The Palmetto was of the greatest use to the early colonists ; its 

 leaves furnished them with hats and a thatch for their houses ; from 

 the sap, drawn from the trunk and fermented, a beverage was ob- 

 tained ; while the seeds, ground and mixed with meal, were baked 

 into a coarse bread ; later on, occupation was found for busy fingers 

 in weaving the leaves into baskets in which onions were shipped to 

 New York; — but with the improvements of recent years this has 

 all passed away, and with the exception of a few fans, made from 

 the bleached leaves, no use is made of this once indispensable palni. 



Closely allied to the above is the Natural Order Fandanaea;, which 

 produces the graceful Fan palm (Gardtilovica palmataj, and two 

 species of Screw palm fPandamis murtcatus and P. odoratus) , so called 

 from the spiral manner in which their leaves are given oft" around 

 the stem ; they frequently find a place in shrubberies. 



