THE PALMS OF ASIA. 129 



perhaps by birds, germinates on the moist upper 

 parts of trees of tliis species, and thence sends 

 doun its descending shoots, which in time 

 coalesce and entirely inclose the palm, which 

 finally appears with only its crown of leaves 

 projecting beyond the top of the trunk of a lofty 

 Banian, out of which it appears to grow, though 

 actually older, and, like it, having its roots 

 fixed in the ground. Martins mentions a similar 

 phenomenon in his South American travels, 

 during which he saw many such palms, on the 

 thickly-wooded banks of the Rio Guama, 

 entirely cased, except the terminal plume 

 of foliage, with the stems of some of the 

 numerous woody creepers which bind the 

 forests of that region into one huge mass of 

 vegetation. 



We now turn from the palms of the Asiatic 

 continent, of which we have noticed those most 

 remarkable, to those of the islands of the Asiatic 

 seas, and of these we must give the first place 

 to the sago palms. 



Arenga saccharifera (Saguerus EumpJni, 

 Koxburgh) is one of these, and is found in 

 all the islands of the Indian Archipelago, the 

 IMoluccas, the Philippines, etc. It is a plant 

 of an ugly appearance, an imusual circum- 

 stance in the most elegant of the vegetable 



E 



