118 TROPICAL PLANTS 



that a rope thus composed had been in constant use during 

 many years upon the wharf of the city of Paraiba, where it 3 

 was employed for embarking merchandise, and it retained its 

 strength unimpaired. On one occasion the heavy anchors be- 

 longing to a line-of- battle ship were hoisted on board a vessel 

 with this same old rope, after hempen cables of a larger dia- 

 meter had been found inefficient for the purpose. A plant like o 

 this, though hitherto neglected by the routine of commerce, 

 seems destined to a great future importance in the markets of D; 

 the world. • 



The foliage of the screw pines, so widely extended over the 

 East Indian and South Sea Isles, where they form a prominent | 

 feature in the landscape, closely resembles that of the bromelias, 

 while the stem (round which the serrated leaves ascend in 

 spiral convolutions, till they terminate in a pendulous crown), 

 the aerial roots, and the fruit of the strong plants, remind one of 

 the palms, the mangroves, and the coniferae. 



The Pandanus odoratissimus, or sweet-smelling screw pine, 

 whose fruits, when perfectly mature, resemble large rich-coloured 

 pine-apples, plays an important part in the household economy 

 of the coral-islanders of the South Sea. The inhabitants of the 

 Mulgrave Archipelago, where the cocoa-nut is rare, live almost 

 exclusively on the juicy pulp, and the pleasant kernels of the 

 fruit. The dried leaves serve to thatch their cottages, or are 

 made use of as a material for mats and raiment. The wood is 

 hard and durable. They string together the beautiful red and 

 yellow coloured nuts for ornaments, and wear the flowers as 

 garlands. When the tree is in full blossom, the air around is 

 impregnated with delicious aromas. 



The grotesque forms of the Cactuses possess the stiff rigidity 

 of the aloes. Their fleshy stems, covered with a gray green 

 coriaceous rind, generally exhibit bunches of hair and thorns 

 instead of leaves. The angular columns of the Cerei, or torch - 

 cactuses, rise to the height of sixty feet, — generally branchless, 

 sometimes strangely ramified, as candelabras, while others creep 

 like ropes upon the ground, or hang, snake-like, from the 

 trees, on which they are parasitically rooted. The opuntias are 

 unsymmetrically constructed of thick flat joints springing one 

 from the other, while the melon-shaped Echinocacti and Mam- 

 millarise, longitudinally ribbed or covered with warts, remain 



