240 



HISTORY OP THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM 



navigators found their way to the eastern islands 

 and different parts of the Indian ocean, they be- 

 came well acquainted with the cane-plant, and 

 the great variety of uses to which it might be 

 applied. At Java, as well as at Sumatra, at Ja- 

 pan, Malacca, Siam, Pegu, and many other 

 places, the rattan was found in great abundance. 

 Tlie natives of Java cut the cane into fine slips, 

 which they plait into beautiful mats to sit upon, 

 manufacture into strong and neat baskets, or twist 

 into cordage. With them it supplies the place 

 of our string or twine, for all their parcels are 

 neatly tied up with the fibres of cane. The 

 fruit it bears, which, when lipe, is of a round 

 form, about the size of a hazle nut, and lies in 

 clusters, they sell in the markets as an article of 

 food. They sometimes suck the pulp to quench 

 thirst, and at other times pickle the fruit. 

 Twisted cane forms the cables of their ships. 

 At Malwia was a manufactory of this sort of 

 cable. " Here," says Dampier, " we made two 

 new cables of rattans, each of them four inches 

 about ; they were strong and serviceable, and 

 had the property of buoyancy in the water, 

 not sinking like our hemp cables." In Japan 

 the natives make all sorts of upholstery work 

 from the split pieces of the cane. 



CHAP. XXVIII. 



TUB FAMILY OP PALMS, THE COCOA NUT, DATE, 

 DANNANA, WAX-PALM, &C. 



The family of palms form one of the most 

 magnificent in the vegetable kingdom. Inter- 

 mediate in their structure, between herbaceous 

 plants and trees, they possess the towering height 

 and the umbrageous shade of these latter glories 

 of the vegetable tribes, with an elegance of form and 

 beauty of proportion not inferior to any of the 

 denizens of the woods or forests. Tliey are all 

 natives of tropical regions, and bring to us asso- 

 ciations of bright and sunny skies, and a tem- 

 perature in which their leafy shade and the cool- 

 ing products which they yield must bo peculi- 

 arly grateful and appropriate. 



The palms are generally large trees, with a 

 simple, cylindrical, leafless stem, designated by 

 the name of Stipe. At its summit, tlie palm is 

 crowned by a bundle of very large, petiolate, persis- 

 tent leaves, which are pinnate or decompound, with 

 a greater or less number of leaflets of diversified 

 form. The flowers are hermaphrodite, or more 

 ooramonly unisexual, dioecious or polygamous, 

 forming catkins, or a large cluster named regime, 

 and enveloped previous to its expansion in a co- 

 riaceous, sometimes ligneous spatha. The peri- 

 anth has six divisions, of which three are inner 

 and three outer, so as to resemble a calyx and a 



corolla. The stamina arc six, rarely tlirec. The 

 pistil is simple, or formed by the aggregation of 

 three distinct or united pistils. It presents one 

 or three cells, each containing a single seed. 

 Each pistil is terminated by a style, surmounted 

 by a more or less elongated stigma. The fruit 

 is a fleshy or fibrous drupe, containing a very 

 hard bony nucleus, \\ith one or three monosper- 

 mous cells. The seed, besides its proper integu- 

 ment, consists of a fleshy or cartilaginous endo- 

 sperm, sometimes presenting a central or lateral 

 cavity. The embryo is very small and cylindri- 

 cal, and is placed horizontally in a small lateral 

 depression of the endosperm. 



With the exception of the fan-palm {Gham- 

 (Brops humilis), all the plants of this family are 

 extra-European, inliabiting especially the inter- 

 tropical regions of the old and new continents. 

 These trees are not only remarkable for the ele- 

 gance of their form and the prodigious height 

 which several of them attain, but are also of the 

 greatest importance on account of the numerous 

 services which they render to the inhabitants of 

 the countries in which they naturally grow. 

 The fruits of many species, as the cocoa, the 

 date, and the terminal bud of the cabbage-palm 

 are eaten by the inhabitants of Northern Africa 

 and India. Several species furnish an amylace- 

 ous fecula named sago; others an astringent 

 principle, similar to dragon's-blood. Some again 

 yield a fixed oil, as ^lais guincensis, from which 

 the palm-oil is procured. The betel-nut, which 

 possesses an intoxicating and narcotic power, is 

 the product of the areca catechu. There are 

 upwards of one hundred and thirty known spe- 

 cies of palms. 



One of the most interesting of the palm tribe 

 is the cocoa nut tree, both as regards the variety 

 and the utility of its products. The following 

 account of this tree by Mr Marshall is so fuU and 

 complete as leaves nothing farther to be desired 

 on the subject.* 



The Cocoa Ndt Tkee fcocMj naa/era J belongs 

 to the class Monoscia, order Hexandria, of the 

 Linnean classification of plants. 



Stem erect, without branches, from sixty to 

 ninety or 110 feet in height, and from one to 

 two feet in thickness. See Plate IV. fig. 3. It 

 is marked with parallel rings from the cicatrices 

 of the fallen leaves, about two of which separate 

 annually. By these cicatrices or marks the age 

 of a tree may be ascertained. 



The stem is crowned with a bunch of about 

 twelve or fifteen fronds (palm-leaves), each 

 twelve or fourteen feet long, and composed of a 

 double row of opposite sword-shaped leaflets, in 

 length from three to four feet ; upper leaves are 

 erect, middle horizontal, lower ones rather droop- 



* Tlie Natural and Economical History of the Cocoa 

 Nut Tree. 



