SEPTEMBER. 



429 



La Candeur — Pure white; flower finely shaped; ckisters 

 I arge ; late. 



Laurent de St. Cyr — Bright rose ; flowers in very large 

 heads ; robust habit ; late. 



325. Phytele'phus macroca'rpa Ruiz and Pavon. Large 

 Fruited Ivory Plant. (Phytelephantheas.) S. America. 



This is the celebrated Ivory plant, so called from its nuts 

 supplying the place of the Ivory-bearing animals, once so 

 abundant in the new world. 



Within a few years the consumption of the vegetable 

 ivory has rapidly increased, and many hundred tons are im- 

 ported annually into Europe and the United States. From 

 it are manufactured toys, knobs of walking canes, &c. It so 

 nearly resembles the ivory obtained from elephants, that it is 

 often palmed off" as such, and is even employed by mechan- 

 ics, as far as its size will allow, in place of that article. 



The Ivory plant is nearly allied to the palms. Its growth 

 is confined to the Continent of South America, where it 

 grows between the ninth degree of north and the eighth of 

 south latitude, and the 70th to the 79th of west longitude, 

 inhabiting damp localities, in valleys and on banks of rivers 

 and rivulets, often as high as 3000 feet above the sea. 



It is generally found in separate groves. The trunk is al- 

 ways pulled down, partly by its own weight, partly by its 

 aerial roots, and thus forms a creeping stem, often twenty feet 

 long, but seldom higher than six feet. The top is crowned 

 with palm-like leaves, which are eighteen or twenty inches 

 long. The plants are diaecious. The flowers emit a most 

 penetrating, almond-like smell. These, in the female plant, 

 are succeeded by the fruit, which form clusters as large as a 

 man's head, at first erect, afterwards drooping, and contain 

 seven to nine of the nuts. A plant bears at one time from 

 six to eight of these heads, each weighing, when ripe, about 

 twenty-five pounds. The seeds at first contain a clear, lim- 

 pid fluid ; this afterwards becomes milky and sweet, and it 

 changes by degrees as it acquires solidity, until at last it is as 



