THE EQUINOCTIAL ZONE. 55 



palm has ever been the queen of the woods, not 

 only on account of the beauty of its form, but 

 because of its extraordinary usefulness. Though 

 the species of palm are so numerous, there arc 

 few, perhaps none, which are not in some way 

 useful to man. No other tribe produces such 

 enormous quantities of fruit. Alfonsia amygda- 

 lina, a South American species, has 207,000 

 flowers in a single flower-sheath, or 600,000 

 upon an individual, though all do not ripen. 

 The seje palm of the Oronoko bears 8,000 

 fruits on every branch. The whole tribe is one 

 of the most interesting in the vegetable king- 

 dom ; their towering stems, their majestic 

 foliage, their immense value as affording food, 

 raiment, and a variety of products of economical 

 and commercial importance, the character of 

 grandeur they impress upon the landscape, and 

 the great variety of their appearance and habits 

 all combine to attract attention to them. We 

 shall glance briefly at a few of those which 

 inhabit this zone. 



The cocoa palm is, perhaps, the most im- 

 portant of all. Its native country is the old 

 world and the South Sea Islands ; it has, pro- 

 bably, migrated to America, and grows there 

 in great numbers on the West India Islands 

 and Brazil. In the Southern Ocean it often 

 points out to the mariner the rocks of coral on 

 which it grows, and which are so dangerous to 

 navigators. On the damp coasts of India and 

 the rich Island of Ceylon, the cocoa palms grow 

 in millions, and not only minister to the wants 



