152 THE PALMS OF AMEUICA. 



centre, and becomes a natural hollow cylinder, 

 which, on account of the hardness of the outside 

 •wood, forms a very durable water-pipe, often 

 as much as one hundred feet long, and is said 

 to become when buried almost as hard as iron. 

 The wood is sometimes imported under the 

 name of " cabbage wood," and has a beautifully 

 mottled appearance ; but it d<.)e3 not answer 

 trade purposes ver}^ well, as the ends of the 

 fibres aji-e too hard, and the medullary portion 

 too soft for holding glue. 



We have already mentioned Ceroxijlon Andi- 

 cola, the wax palm of the xindes, as h;iving been 

 discovered by Humboldt and Bonplaiid on some 

 of the mountains of that magnificent chain, at an 

 elevation approaching in its mean temperature 

 to the climate of middle Europe. Growing in 

 a region generally considered as beyond the 

 limits of the true palm world, attaining a lofty 

 height, Avhich renders it one of the most impos- 

 ing of its noble tribe, and covered with a sin- 

 gular secretion, it claims our notice as one of 

 the most remarkable of the family to which it 

 is allied. It has received from the American 

 Spaniards tlie name of Pahna di ccra, or wax 

 palm, on account of the abundance of ihat sub- 

 stance which is yielded by the stem. It grows, 

 according to BonpUuid, on the Andes, in 4° 35' 



