OF THE PALMS. 16 



texture, and being curled at the extremity like 

 some grasses. The direction of the leaves must 

 also be noticed. In most palms they point 

 upwards, curving gracefully towards the point 

 to a greater or less degree. In some, however, 

 they are pendant, as in Corypha tectorum, and 

 in others nearly horizontal, as in the date palm. 

 It is this upward direction of the giant leaves, 

 says Humboldt, that, together with their lofty 

 stems, *' gives to the palms their character of 

 high majesty. It is a character of the physiog- 

 nomical beauty- of the palm that its leaves are 

 directed upwards throughout the whole period 

 of its duration, and not only in the youth of 

 the tree, as is the case of the date palm. The 

 more acute the angle made by the leaves with 

 the upper part of the stem," (that is, the nearer 

 they approach the perpendicular,) " the greater 

 and nobler is the form of the tree." The leaf- 

 stalks of palms are either smooth, sharply- 

 toothed, or serrated, or even spiny ; and at the 

 base, where they spring from the stem, they 

 are often fringed with a strong coarse network 

 of fibres. 



In all the palms, the flower buds burst 

 forth from the stem immediately beneath the 

 leaves ; the mode in which this takes place, 

 however, varies in different species. The flowers 



