848 NATURAL HISTORY. 



time ; at length a sheath from which sprouts a very large 

 panicle, appears in the middle of the plant, the whole 

 resembling an immense candelabra. Flowers hang in 

 catkins. The fruit is uneatable, and contains hard ker- 

 nels like small shot. The useful part of this tree is the 

 central pith, which is taken from the stem before the 

 terminal bud begins to shoot. This pithy portion re- 

 sembles fine meal, and known as the East Indian Sago, 

 is used largely as nutritive food. Native of India. '2. 



The Cabbage Tree (Euterpe oleracese), seventy feet 

 in height. This palm is a handsome tree, growing per- 

 pendicularly straight ; stem two-thirds gray below, upper 

 third green ; the feathery- leaved crown, light and grace- 

 ful, is pleasing to the eye. Under this crown are the 

 sheaths, from which the flower-tufts or bulbs develope ; 

 fruit, a berry altogether uneatable. As long as these ' 

 flower-bulbs remain soft they can be taken out and eaten 

 as are the terminal buds of the true palm ; so, also, the 

 young unopened leaves. If the tree is cut down and the 

 trunk left lying on the ground, the palm beetle deposits 

 its eggs within them, and the numerous larva? soon deve- 

 lope, adding, it is said, much to their excellence ; found 

 everywhere within the tropics. The Royal Palm is a 

 relative species. ] ?. 



The Maritz Palm (Mauritia flcxusa) has a straight, 

 smooth stem and fan-like leaves ; height sixty feet ; flow- 



pulms, -when -wounded, flows a grateful beverage, known in India as 

 Toddy ; the rind 13 used for culinary vessels, the outer portion into 

 very strong cordage (Coir rope) ; the kernels, expressed, make oil. 

 Canes and ratans are the slender, often prostrate, stems of species of 

 Calamus. The Phyttphelas of South America yields the larger sort 

 of nuts, the hard and white albumen of which is the vegetable ivory, 

 now so largely used by the turners. OKAY. Tr. 



