SABAL PALMETTO. 



227 



in this connection. Like other drupes, this also has two 

 coats, the outer of loose, woody, brown fibers, the inner a 

 shell of bone. At the apex of the shell are 3 apertures — the 

 scars of the stigmas. Within the shell is only 1 cell and 1 

 seed, although the ovary was 3-celled and 3-ovuled. The 

 cut (11) shows a section of the seed — the white, fibrous, oily 

 albumen with a cavity which contained the milk — and at e, 

 the embryo, 1-cotyledoued, in a separate, smaller cavity ; 



11, section of the seed of a Cocoa- 

 nut ; f, the embryo ; 12, Cocoa-nut 

 germinating. 



(12) shows its germination 

 — the growing plumule p, 

 the growing radicle r, and 

 the enlarged cotyledon c, 

 partly filling the cavity. 

 Classification (ordinal).— The order Palmace^ is esti- 

 mated at seventy-three genera and four hundred species. 

 Nearly all are natives of the Torrid Zone in both hemispheres. 

 The Palms rank among the noblest of the Vegetable King- 

 dom, whether we regard their towering stems, their mag- 

 nificent leaves, their numberless floAvers, or their valuable 

 products. The trunks of some attain the height of one hun- 

 dred and eighty and a diameter of five feet. 



O'tlamus Rudentum, of tlie Malaccas, (rnnvs in the form of a cable 

 five hundred feet in length dangling from trees to which it cHngs by the 



