Palm u bs | 



PALMA( I.. I. 





single individual ; while every bunch of the Seje Palm oi the Orou 

 They are very uniform in the botanical characters bj which they are distinguish 

 cially in their fleshy colourless 6-parted 

 flowers, enclosed in spathea, their mi- 

 nute embryo lying in the m i< 1 -t of albu- 

 men and remote from the hilum, and their 

 arborescenl stems with rigid, plaited or 

 pinnated, inarticulated leaves, called i 

 fronds ; but their aspect and habits are 

 extremely various. To use the words of 

 the mosl accomplished traveller of our 

 own, or any age ; — " While some (Kun- 

 ihi;i montana, Aiphanes Praga, Oreodoxa 

 frigida) have trunks as slender as the 

 graceful reed, or longer than the longest 

 cable, (Calamus Rudentum, 500 feet), 

 others (Jubsea spectabilis and Cocos bu- 

 tyracea) are '■'< and even 5 feet thick: 

 while some grow collected in groups 

 (Mauritda flexuosa, Chamserops humilis), 

 others (Oreodoxa regia, Martinezia cary- 

 otaefolia) singly dart tin ii- Blender trunks 

 into tiic air ; while some have a low cau- 

 dex (Attalea amygdalina), others exhibit 

 a towering stem 160-180 feet high (Ce- 

 roxylon andicola) ; and while one part 

 flourishes in the low valleys of the tro- 

 pics, or on the declivities of the lower 

 mountains, to the elevation of 

 '"in feet, another part consists 

 of mountains r 

 upon 

 snow 



added, mat while many 

 a cylindrical undivided stem, 

 the Doom Palm of Upper 

 Egypt, and an allied S] 

 the llvjiha-ne coriacea, arc 

 remarkable for their dicho- 

 tomous repeatedly-divided trunk. The Calami, or Ro tangs, and the siliceous s> cretioi 

 their leaves, indicate an affinity with Grasses, which would hardly he anticipated, if 

 the grasses of our European meadows were compared with the Cocoa Nutsofthe Indie-, 

 hut which becomes more apparent when the Bamboo is placed by the side of r I 

 The Rattan Palms, called by Rumphius Palmijunci, are described as inhabit 

 dense forests, where the rays of the sun can hardly penetrate, in which situations the> 

 form spiny hushes which obstruct all passage into these jungles, rising to the to] 

 the highest tree- and falling again, so as to resemble a prodigious length of cable, ad 

 however with the mosl beautiful leaves, pinnated or terminating in graceful tendrils. 



Von Martius, the great illustrator of this noble family, speaks thus of their habits 

 and geographical arrangement :— " Palms, the splendid offspring of Tellus and i 

 chiefly acknowledge as their native land those happy regions seated within the tro| 

 where the beams of the latter forever shine. Inhabitants of either world, thej 

 range beyond .'!.'>" in the southern, or 10° in the northern hemispl 

 species scarcely extend beyond their own contracted limits, on which account I 

 few countries favourable for their production in which ■ 

 are not found ; the few that arc dispersed through many Ian 

 nucifera, Acrocomia sclerocarpa, and Borassus flabelliformis. It is probabli that the 

 number of species thus scattered over the face of nature will he foui 

 1000 or more. Of these net a few love the humid hanks of rivuli I 



upy the shores of the ocean, and some ascend into alpine r > Cl into 



dense forests, others spring up singly or in clusters over the plains." /' I he 



testimony of Von Martins is continued by Humboldt, who a ts that there must 



he an incredible number still to discover in equinoctial regions 



Lountaineera bordering 



the limits of perpetual „.,*,• 



" To which mav be, j&V 



I, that while many!: 









sen. 



Pig. XCII.— Sagus Rumphii. 1. a flower ; 2. the sbum opened ; 3. a section of a:. 



Hon of a seed of Sagus Maris . 5. fruit and remains of spadix.— Blumc. 



