OF THE PALMS. 28 



fore, been long in the habit of obtaining chisters 

 of male flowers from the places where thej 

 grow, and hanging them over the spathes of 

 female blossoms to insure the ripening of the 

 dates. Stores of pollen are often laid up from 

 year to year for this purpose, and so great is 

 the value of the date palm and the importance 

 of the crop, upon which many oriental tribes 

 depend almost entirely for subsistence, that one 

 of the severest injuries a hostile force can 

 commit in an invaded territory is to cu.t down 

 all the male palms. 



The structure of the fruit is various. It is con- 

 sidered by botanists to consist in its regular form 

 of three cells, but two of these are sometimes 

 obsolete, and the fruit then appears one-celled. 

 The structure of the cocoa-nut is very curious. 

 In the germen, the fruit of the cocoa-nut is 

 three-seeded, and has three distinct embrj'os, 

 one of which is opposite to each of the spots 

 ^vhich in the mature nut are marked by three 

 dark scars near one end. Two of these embryos, 

 however, constantly prove abortive ; and the 

 scars, which are the holes through which these 

 embryos would have protruded had they been 

 developed, become as hard as the rest of the 

 shell ; while the scar opposite to the only germ 

 which has fulfilled its destined purpose is so 



