THE PALMS AND THE PALMETTOS 



THE PALM FAMILY is a large group of tropical flowering 

 plants, related to lilies on one side and grasses on the other. 

 Like both of these, palms have but one cotyledon (seed leaf) 

 in the embryo, and the stem is composed of a hardened outer 

 layer within which is a mass of felt-like tissue in which longi- 

 tudinal bundles of tough wood cells are irregularly distributed. 

 Growth is internal, about these bundles as centres not ex- 

 ternal, from a cambium. The parts of the flowers are regularly 

 in 3's, as in the lilies. The leaves are parallel- veined, and they 

 sheathe the stem, as in the grasses. They are fan shaped or 

 feather shaped. 



