u^ 



PALMS. 



fragile plants, that they are frequently used with success in 

 the formation of bridges across the watercourses and ravines. 

 Sir E. Tennent mentions one which crossed the Falls of the 

 Mahawelli Granga, in Ceylon, and was constructed with all the 

 precision of scientific engineering. 



It was entirely composed of a species of ratan, "the extremities 

 of which were fastened to living trees on the opposite sides of 

 the ravine, through which a furious and otherwise impassable 

 mountain torrent thundered and fell from rock to rock, with a 

 descent of nearly a hundred feet. The flooring of this aerial 

 bridge consisted of short splints of wood laid transversely, and 

 bound in their place, by thin strips of the ratan itself. The 

 whole structure vibrated and swayed with fearful ease, but the 



coolies traversed it, though 

 heavily laden, and the Eu- 

 ropean, between whose estate 

 and the high road it lay, rode 

 over it daily without dis- 

 mounting." 



On turning from Asia to 

 the adjoining continent of 

 Africa, we find a new world 

 of palms, several of which 

 are no less valuable than the 

 cocoa-nut or the palmyra, 

 either as affording food, or 

 enriching by their pro- 

 duce the commerce of the 

 world. 



The date-tree, sung from 

 time immemorial by the poets 

 of the East, is as indispens- 

 able as the camel to the 

 inhabitants of the wastes 

 of North Africa and Arabia, 

 and, next to the " ship of the 

 desert," the devout Mussulman esteems it the chief gift of 

 Allah. Few palms have a wider range, for it extends from 

 the Persian Gulf to the borders of the Atlantic, and flourishes 

 from the twelfth to the thirty-seventh degree of northern latitude. 



Date Tree, 



