18o VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



present. Linnaeus seems to have perceived them, by 

 giving to some of them the particular names of Truncus, 

 Stipes, Caudex, Culmus ; but it is to Desfontaines 

 that the science is truly indebted for the first general 

 and exact ideas which it has acquired upon this impor- 

 tant subject; he was the first, in his Memoire upon the 

 Comparative Structure of the Trunks of Monocotyledons 

 and Dicotyledons, who laid hold of the essential cha- 

 racters of the general structure of Endogens, and by 

 this good observation opened to anatomists an entirely 

 new path. Mirbel and Du Petit-Thouars have also 

 published some interesting observations upon the struc- 

 ture of the different families of this class, and upon their 

 growth. 



§ 1. — The Stems of Palms. 



The stems of Palms are, of all Endogens, those 

 which have excited most attention by their slender form, 

 and the singularity of their appearance : they have been 

 more carefully studied than the others; and, in giving 

 a detailed description, we will dispense with many 

 repetitions in the following Articles. 



The stem of Palms is usually erect, strong, simple, 

 regularly cylindrical, and crowned at the summit with 

 a tuft of leaves, the number of which is nearly constant. 

 If it be cut transversely, we see that it is only com- 

 posed of scattered fibres, intermixed with a cellular 

 tissue, which connects them with one another. We 

 also remark at first sight, that the fibres of the circum- 

 ference are close to each other, of a very firm texture, 

 and evidently older than the inner ones ; these, on the 

 contrary, are separate, soft, of a more herbaceous nature. 



