THE PALMS 01' AMERICA. 167 



By submitting a very thin slice of it to a high 

 magnifying power, it is seen to be traversed by 

 a vast number of tubes, all lying in one direc- 

 tion, and fringed at their outer ends, while from 

 the sides numerous short branches are given 

 off. The tubes are believed to contain oil. 



Here we close our illustrations of the living 

 palms. We have endeavoured to collect into a 

 small compass all the more interesting of the 

 facts known respecting them ; but with regard 

 to a race which is so little understood as the 

 palm tribe yet is, and almost every species of 

 which is an exotic to the present race of 

 botanists, a vastly greater amount of valuable 

 facts yet remains, doubtless, to be discovered, 

 both as regards the physiology, and the useful 

 application of these noble trees. The study of 

 modern botany has been so confined to that 

 more civilized portion of our globe, the tem- 

 perate zone, that the only scientific students of 

 the tribe have been passing travellers, or tem- 

 porary residents in those countries where its 

 specimens abound. The difficulties which (as 

 already explained) have surrounded their in- 

 vestigations have been such as to render it 

 astonishing that so much is known respecting 

 the palms ; and that obstacles, apparently 



