1(S MASSACHUSETTS IIOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



rmniluir, tis this always grows along the coast, and oftt-n with its 

 roots in the salt water; where it appears to thrive al)out as well as 

 on a sweeter soil. Palms of various kinds, some with smooth 

 trunks, some covered with spines, and some with a fibre suilaMc for 

 making into cordage, are to be found in all the forests of Central 

 America. The most beautiful of the large-growing palms is the Atta- 

 lea Cohune. This resembles in general appeai'ance ayoungcocoanut 

 palm, but the trunk never becomes so elongated as it increases in 

 ago. The trunk of the Cohune palm is thicker and more sturdy ; 

 and at the base of its leaves is found the hempen fibre used for 

 cordage, together with several bunches of nuts. I think that for 

 beauty and magnificence of foliage it is the most wonderful of the 

 Palm famil}-. It grows well only on very rich soil in the interior; 

 and as portions of Honduras are extremely fertile this palm in 

 those sections attains its highest perfection. I have seen the 

 fronds thirty feet in length and four feet broad on miles of trees, 

 and intermingling overhead in most wonderful luxuriance of 

 growth ; creating in the mind of an enthusiastic horticulturist a 

 desire that all other admirers of the beautiful might behold the 

 same magnificent scene. 



This Cohune palm bears at the base of the fronds great bunches 

 of nuts, exactly' resembling huge clusters of grapes ; and I have 

 often wondered, when looking over the old family Bible, whether 

 the artist who made the picture in it usually supposed to repre- 

 sent two men carrying a bunch of grapes on a pole between them 

 was not ac(]uaiiited witii the Cohune palm, and whether, in his 

 desire to perpetuate Die memory of this beautiful and useful tree, 

 he had not depicted this fruit on its way to the crushing mill — there 

 to be made into the very finest and best oil either for culinary or 

 mechanical purposes — instead of grapes to be made into wine. 



The woods are full of vines and creepers, in most places so 

 numerous antl luxuriant as to make the forest impenetrable for 

 man till he cuts his way through with the ever present machete 

 (a sword-like knife about three feet long). Sarsaparillas, Dipla- 

 denias, IJignonias, etc., etc., run wild and in confusion, the useful 

 and the ornamental all mixed together. 



Our next stopping place was at the mouth of the Kiver Ulloa, 

 and if tiu'ic was ever a place which made me think of Pande- 

 monium tins was it ; as it was inhabited principally by monstrous 

 sharks, alligators, mosquitoes, and negroes. The negroes seemed 



