PALMS IN TEMPERATE REGIONS 151 



under 34° S. lat. and, thanks to its mild insular climate, New 

 Zealand boasts of the Areca sapida in the still higher latitude 

 of 38°. In Africa, the Hyphcene coriacea penetrates to the south 

 as far as Port Natal (30° S. lat.), while in America the palms 

 extend to 35° S. lat., both in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, and 

 westward of the colossal barrier of the Andes, where the Choco, 

 the only Chilian palm, indicates the extreme limits of the 

 family. 



As these palms of the temperate regions are able to exist 

 imder a mean annual temperature of 58°, they might possibly 

 be made to adorn the gardens of Penzance. Most palms, however, 

 require a mean temperature of from 70° to 72°, and on advancing 

 towards the Equator they are found to increase in beauty, state- 

 lioess of growth, and variety of form. Their chief seats are the 

 lower regions of the torrid zone ; but as some species range far to 

 the North or South, thus others ascend the mountain-slopes, 

 almost to the limits of perpetual snow. 



In South America, the Ceroxylon andicola, the palmetto of 

 Azufral, and the Kitnthia montana are found growing on heights 

 of 6,000 and 9,000 feet, where the thermometer often falls during 

 the night to 43° and 47° ; and in the Paramo de Gruanacos, Hum- 

 boldt even saw palms growing at an elevation of 13,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. 



Besides the height of the shaft, the position of the leaves 

 serves chiefly to impart a more or less majestic character to the 

 palms : those with drooping leaves being far less stately than those 

 whose fronds shoot more or less upwards to the skies. Nothing 

 can exceed the elegance of the Jagua palm, which along with the 

 splendid Cucurito adorns the granite-rocks in the cataracts of 

 the Orinoco at Atures and Maypures. The fronds, which are 

 but few in number, rise almost perpendicularly sixteen feet high, 

 from the top of the lofty columnar shaft, and their feathery 

 leaflets of a thin and grass-like texture play lightly round the tall 

 leaf-stalks, slowly bending in the breeze. The physiognomy of 

 the palms depends also upon the various character of their efflor- 

 escence. The spathe is seldom vertical, with erect fruits ; gene- 

 rally it hangs downwards, sometimes smooth, frequently armed 

 with large thorns. 



In the palms with a feathery foliage, the leaf-stalks rise either 

 immediately from the brown rugged ligneous trunk (cocoa-nut, 



