PALLADIUM PANDA N E JE. 



385 



PALLADIUM. We are indebted to the late 

 Dr. Wollaston for the first accurate account of this 

 mineral. That distinguished philosopher found it 

 associated with platina and iridiiim. It is of a white 

 colour, and nearly resembles platina in its external 

 appearance. Palladium is mostly found in the gold 

 (iistricts of South America, but its scarcity and con- 

 sequent high price forbid its extensive use in the 

 arts. 



PALMA CHRISTI is the Ricinus comnnmh, or 

 castor-oil plant of Linnaeus. A well-known flower- 

 garden annual. 



PALINLE. A natural order of magnificent and 

 remarkable plants containing forty genera, and one 

 hundred and thirty species already discovered and 

 described, though it is well known that many more 

 exist in the yet unexplored wilds of South America 

 and other tropical countries. 



" Palms," says Dr. Von Martius, "the noble off- 

 spring of Terra and Phoebus, are natives of those 

 countries, where the rays of the latter are daily beam- 

 ins:. In all such climates they are to be found, with 

 this limitation, however, that in the southern hemi- 

 sphere they do not. overstep the thirty-iifih degree of 

 latitude, nor in the northern the fortieth. Most spe- 

 cies are found fixed and confined within narrow 

 bounds ; for it conies to pass, that wherever a district 

 i* characterised by striking peculiarities of soil or 

 climate those species exist which are not found else- 

 where ; but few extend over a large extent of surface, 

 as the Cocos micifcra, Acrocomifi srlcmcnrpa, Borassus 

 Jlabclliformis, &c. It is probable that the number of 

 palms existing on the face of the earth will be found 

 by future travellers to amount to as many as a thou- 

 sand specie?. Most of them love the margins of 

 springs and streams, but few establish themselves on 

 the shores of the ocean, and a yet smaller number 

 id into the alpine regions of their country ; some 

 collect in large forests; some are scattered singly or 

 in groups in woods or on plains. Palms have followed 

 the footsteps of man, to whom their fruit yielded food, 

 drink, and oil; their stems houses, arms, utensils, 

 flour, and wine ; and their leaves cordage, and roofs 

 for habitations. In cultivation, their soil should be 

 slightly saline : they are only propagated by seeds." 



The palms are arborescent monocotyledons, with 

 generally simple cylindrical lofty stems, occasionally, 

 but very rarely, branched. The pinnati-sected leaves 

 are large, petiolated, and crowded at the extremities of 

 the trunk; the leaf-stalks partly embrace the stem, 

 are invested with stipulaceous reticules, and cover 

 the stem, when they fall, with successive scars. The 

 structure of the stem is decidedly endogenous. The 

 inflorescence as in catkins, or racemes, furnished with 

 hracteohr, and often enveloped in a large spalha. 

 The perianth is small and of six pieces, disposed in 

 two series equivalent to calyx and corolla; the sta- 

 mens are rarely three in number, most frequently six ; 

 the styles are three ; stigmata simple ; germen supe- 

 rior, three-celled, two or one often abortive, and the 

 ;ire one-seeded ; the fruit is either a berry or a 

 drupe. 



The cocos, or cocoa-nut bearing, is one of the most 

 useful of the palms, as affording a wholesome kernel, 

 milk, and cream. The sap is a wholesome beverage, 

 and which, when fermented, yields an ardent spirit. 

 The Phicnix dactilifera is also a most valuable fruit- 

 tree, and indispensable to the natives of the coun- 

 tries where it is naturally found or cultivated. The 



NAT. HIST. VOL. III. 



other genera are mentioned under their respective 

 names. 



PALPUS (in the plural, PALPI). The articulated 

 organ attached at the back or side of the lower jaw 

 of many insects. See INSECT. 



PANAG^EUS (Latreille). A handsome genus of 

 coleopterous insects belonging to the family Carabidce, 

 and sub-family Harpalides, having the two basal joints 

 of the tarsi of the males alone dilated, the head very 

 small compared with the rest of the body ; the eyes 

 large and globose ; the jaws very small, and the 

 thorax snborbicular. They are mostly of black 

 colours, ornamented with red or yellow spots, the 

 type being the Carabus crux major, Linnaeus, so 

 named from the elytra exhibiting a black cross. It is 

 found abundantly in the fens in Huntingdonshire. 

 There is another British species, Pan. quadripvstu- 

 lalus. Some of the exotic species are of large 

 size. 



PANDANE.iE. A small natural order containing 

 only two genera and twenty-one species. They are 

 very remarkable plants, with the habit of the pine- 

 apple, but much more robust and tree-like. From 

 the position of the leaves developed in spiral order, 

 they are called the screw-pine. The stem rises to a 

 considerable height, bearing a thick tuft of rigid 

 foliage presenting the habit of palms. New births of 

 roots are gradually produced from the joints of the 

 stem, higher and higher up every year, which in time 

 fix themselves in the ground ; the first or oldest roots 

 in the mean time d}ing away, so that at last the head 

 of the plant is supported by the younger roots 

 arranged like a series of buttresses all round. Pan- 

 danus odoratissimm, as well as the other species of 

 the genus, says Burnett, exhibit a strange semblance 

 of instinct, in the development of aerial roots at diffe- 

 rent distances on their stems, by which their life is 

 prolonged, and the fate common to most of the arbo- 

 rescent endogena for a time avoided. It is very 

 curious to observe the device of nature to strengthen 

 the stem, and to prolong the existence of these hand- 

 some plants. Being endogenous (endon, inside ; gci- 

 nomai, to grow), all growth proceeding from within, 

 the older and harder formations are outermost. But 

 the diameter of the first-formed stem, being compa- 

 ratively small, could not bear the weight of the head 

 afterwards formed, were it not for the propping roots 

 which descend from the more elevated part of the 

 stem. This is the pandang of the Malays, and is 

 found in all the warm countries inhabited by these 

 people. The staminiferous flowers are delightfully 

 fragrant, and are said to yield one of the richest per- 

 fumes known. The soft bases of the leaves and the 

 pulpy part of the fruit, although unpleasant, are eat- 

 able, and the Asiatics feed on them in times of 

 scarcity ; at other times they give them to their 

 cattle as fodder. The soft spongy roots are made 

 into corks ; the fibrous leaves and stem are made 

 into mats and baskets by the Tahitians, who stain 

 them of different colours; they are also used for thatch- 

 ing and for cordage, and made into a coarse kind of 

 sacking for exportation of dry goods, as coffee and 

 the like. The Faquahlnc, which Mtingo Park found 

 in the interior of Africa, the fruit of which, he says, 

 when ripe, explodes and inflames spontaneously, by 

 which many serious accidents have occurred, has 

 been ascertained by M. Beaufort to be a species of 

 Pandanus, and he confirms Park's description. 



The species grow well in our stoves, potted in 

 B B 



