SABAL PALMETTO. 



227 



in this connection. Like other drupes, this also has two 

 coats, the outer of loose, woody, brown fibers, the inner a 

 shell of bone. At the apex of the shell are 3 apertures the 

 scars of the stigmas. Within the shell is only 1 cell and 1 

 seed, although the ovary was 3-celled and 3-ovuled. The 

 cut (11) shows a section of the seed the white, fibrous, oily 

 albumen with a cavity which contained the milk and at e, 

 the embryo, 1-cotyledoned, in a separate, smaller cavity ; 



12 



11 



11, section of the seed of a Cocoa- 

 nut ; 0, the embryo ; 12, Cocoa-nut 

 germinating. 



(12) shows its germination 

 the growing plumule p, 

 the growing radicle r, and 

 the enlarged cotyledon c, 

 partly filling the cavity. 



Classification (ordinal). The order PALM ACE J3 is esti- 

 mated at seventy-three genera and four hundred species. 

 Nearly all are natives of the Torrid Zone in both hemispheres. 

 The Palms rank among the noblest of the Vegetable King- 

 dom, whether we regard their towering stems, their mag- 

 nificent leaves, their numberless flowers, or their valuable 

 products. The trunks of some attain the height of one hun- 

 dred and eighty and a diameter of five feet. 



Calamus Rudentum, of the Malaccas, grows in the form of a cable 

 five hundred feet in length dangling from trees to which it clings by the 



