THE PALMS. 159 



fruit of this tree to which I have referred, is so large that it 

 could hardly be laid on this desk. It has branchlets nearly two 

 yards in length, and each one of these branchlets supports a 

 nut about the size of a large egg ; and when in full bearing, one 

 single bunch is so heavy that it is a good load for two men. 

 I have one such bunch at the Museum, from which the fruit has 

 dropped, it is true ; it is like a bunch of grapes, the berries of 

 which have been taken off; but the bunch itself is there to 

 show the dimensions, and a barrel of fruit which wa^ hung up 

 on that bunch stands by its side. 



Now this fruit contains an oil which is of great value ; it has 

 a pulp which is very palatable ; it has a fibre which is invalu- 

 able for the manufacture of cordage ; and the wood itself is of 

 very great durability and beauty, and may be used for a great 

 variety of purposes. I am told by a friend from Brazil,, who is 

 just at this moment with me at Cambridge, and who was 

 recently at the great Exposition at Paris, and saw there an exhi- 

 bition of all the woods of Brazil, that nothing excited admiration 

 and wonder so much as one dish, in which the different varieties 

 of palm woods and their products were brought together. I 

 have myself seen an exhibition at Para, in which the products 

 of the Purrines were brought together, and where the palm and 

 its various products formed the principal objects exhibited, and 

 astonished me by their variety. I am told that the English 

 have begun to appreciate the value of this palm fibre for cord- 

 age, and that at this moment an exportation of palm fibre has 

 commenced for the manufacture of cables for the English navy. 

 These fibres have one peculiar characteristic, which renders 

 them of great value for such purposes : they are so light that 

 the cables do not sink, but float. You see at once the impor- 

 tance of such a fibre — so strong as to be superior in tenacity to 

 all other textile fabrics, and yet so light that it will not sink in 

 water. 



Now other palms have a totally different aspect. There is, 

 for instance, the Little Marajah. It is a palm only six, eight or 

 ten feet high, a stem not thicker than my thumb, growing in 

 marshy ground and rising like water-bushes from the water, and 

 coming to be about two feet above the level of the water when 

 the fruit is rip^, throwing out bunches of flowers and then 

 bunches of fruit, which, when ripe, are so like our Black Ham- 



