520 Select Plants for Industrial Culture and 



4,000 feet ; it is this superb species, which yields by its seeds much 

 of the vegetable ivory. Phytelephas aequatorialis (Spruce) occurs 

 on the western slope of the Peruvian Andes, up to 5,000 feet ; this 

 palm is one of the grandest objects in the whole vegetable creation, 

 its leaves attaining a length of 30 feet ! The stem rises to 20 feet. 

 Palm -ivory is also largely secured from this plant. Though 

 equinoctial, it lives only in the milder regions of the mountains. 

 Carludovica palmata (B. & P.), on the eastern side of the Andes of 

 Peru and Ecuador ascends to about 4,000 feet ; the fan-shaped 

 leaves from cultivated specimens furnish the main-material for 

 the best Panama-hats. Count de Castelnau saw many palms on 

 the borders of Paraguay during his great Brazilian expedition. 

 Most of these, together with the palms of Uruguay and the wide 

 Argentine territory, would probably prove adapted for acclimation 

 in mild temperate latitudes ; but hitherto the limited access to 

 those countries has left us largely unacquainted with their vegetable 

 treasures also in this direction. Yon Martins demonstrated so 

 early as 18-50 the occurrence of the following palms in extra-tropical 

 South- America : Juania australis (H. Wendland), on high moun- 

 tains in Juan Fernandez, at 30 south latitude ; Jubcea spectabiliw 

 (Humboldt), in Chili, at 40 south latitude ; Trithrinax Brasiliana 

 (Mart.), at 31 south latitude ; Copernicia cerifera (Mart.), at 29 

 south latitude ; Acrocomia Totai (Mart.)., at 28 south latitude ; 

 Cocos australis (Mart.), at 34 south latitude ; Cocos Yatai (Mart.), 

 at 32 south latitude ; Cocos Romanzoffiana (Chamisso), at 28 south 

 latitude ; Diplothemium littorale (Mart.), at 30 south latitude. 

 All the last-mentioned palms occur in Brazil, the Acrocomia and 

 Trithrinax extending to Paraguay, and Cocos australis to Uruguay 

 and the La Plata-States. 



While some palms, as indicated, descend to cooler latitudes, others 

 ascend to temperate and even cold mountain-regions. Among the 

 American species are prominent in this respect Euterpe andicola 

 (Brongniart), E. Haenkeana (Brongn.), E. longivaginata (Mart.), 

 Diplothemium Porallyi (Mart.) and Ceroxylon pithyrophyllum 

 (Mart.), all occurring on the Bolivian Andes at an elevation of about 

 8,000 feet. Ceroxylon andicola (Humboldt), Kuiithia montana 

 (Humb.), Oreodoxa f rigida (Humb.) and Geonoma densa (Linden), 

 also reach on the Andes of New Granada an elevation of 8,000 feet. 

 Ceroxylon Klopstockia (Mart.) advances on the Andes of Venezuela 

 fully to a zone of 7,500 feet altitude, where Karsten saw stems 200 

 feet high, with leaves 24 feet long. There also occur Syagrus San- 

 cona (Karsten) and Platenia Chiragua (Karsten), at elevations of 

 5,000 feet, both very lofty palms, and both recently reduced by Sir 

 Joseph Hooker to the genus Cocos. From the temperate moun- 

 tain-regions of sub-tropical Mexico are known, among others, 

 Chamsedorea concolor (Mart.), Copernicia Pumos (Humb.), C. nana 

 (Kunth) and Brahea dulcis (Mart.), at elevations of from 7,000 to 

 s.oon feet. 



