OF THE PALMS, 9 



fully God has arranged the vast scale of being 

 and life, ^vhether animal or vegetable, so as to 

 present a connected chain or gradation of 

 existence, from the simplest and lowest forms 

 up to the highest and most complex organiza- 

 tions. Most of the palms have unbranched 

 (simple) stems ; but the Hyphcene thehaka, 

 or doum palm of Egj'pt, and one or two others, 

 have regularly forked stems, thus indicating an 

 approach to the external character of the higher 

 order of timber trees. Others again, as the 

 rattans, {calami,) are slender climbers, which 

 hang about the trees of Asiatic forests like 

 living ropes, and, from their siliceous cuticle, 

 seem to have some affinity with the grasses. 

 This would hardly be suspected if we compare 

 the grasses of our meadows with the cocoa-nut or 

 date palm, but it becomes more apparent when 

 the bamboo is placed by the side of the cane. 



The palms were entitled by Linneeus, " the 

 princes of the vegetable world ;" and Von Mar- 

 tius enthusiastically says, " The common-world 

 atmosphere does not become these vegetable 

 monarchs : but in those genial climes where 

 nature seems to have fixed her court, and sum- 

 mons around her of llowers, and fruits, and trees, 

 and animated beings, a galaxy of beauty, — there 

 they tower up into the balmy air, rearing their 



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