THE OREODOXA 149 



flavour, l)ut is more tender and delicious. It is usually cut into 

 pieces, boiled, and served as an auxiliary vegetable with meat. 

 To obtain this small portion, borne on the pinnacle of the tree, 

 and hidden from the eye of man, the axe is applied to the stately 

 trunk, and its towering pride laid low. 



Besides its cabbage, the Oreodoxa furnishes another great 

 delicacy to the table. After the removal of the heart, a kind of 

 black beetle deposits its eggs in the cavity, from which fat 

 grubs are developed, growing to the size and thickness of a 

 man's thumb. These, though disgusting in appearance, when 

 , fried in a pan, with a very little butter and salt, have a taste 

 which savours of all the spices of India. 



Both the Oreodoxa and the Ceroxylon are far surpassed in 

 height by the Californian firs and the Eucalypti of Australia, 

 but no other trees rise so proudly in the air on shafts com- 

 paratively so slender. While the enormous trunks of the 

 Sequoias and Wellingtonias remind one of the massy pillars 

 of our old gothic churches, or of the ruins of Thebes, the grace- 

 ful palms recall to our memory the slender Ionic or Corinthian 

 columns which adorn the masterpieces of Grecian architecture. 



The oil of the Corozo {Elceis oleifera) is usually burnt in the 

 houses and churches of Carthagena and New Granada ; and the 

 Oenocarpus disticha is cultivated in Brazil, as it furnishes an 

 excellent oil for culinary purposes. 



The Pirijao {Gulielma speciosa) is planted round the huts of 

 ' the Indians, and replaces in some districts the Mauritia,* as the 

 tree of life. 



The Piapava (Attalia fufnifera), whose stone-hard dark- 

 brown nuts are manufactured into rosaries by the inhabitants 

 of Villa Nova de Olivenza, is far more important, on account 

 of its fibres, which, unknown a few years ago, are now im- 

 ported into England in large quantities, where they serve for 

 making brooms ; and the amazingly hard nuts of the Cabeza di 

 Negro {Phyteleplias), rivalling ivory in whiteness, solidity, and 

 beauty, are extensively used by our turners for similar purposes. 



To these the names of many other useful palms might be 

 added, for there is scarce a member of this widely-extended 

 family which has not some valuable quality ; but not to fatigue 



* See Chapter II. 



