THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 331 



the finely divided leaves, spreading in the form of an 

 umbrella, above all possesses the character of graceful 

 elegance and, trembling in the slightest breeze, excites the 

 impression of light, free movement. The medium between 

 these two extremes is held by the Palm-form, in the 

 strictest sense of the term, the perfect shapes of which, 

 pre-figured as it were by Nature in a still crude and half- 

 abortive attempt in the Cycadece, peculiarly condition the 

 imposing Beauty of the tropical world. They deserve that 

 we should spend a few moments among them, and we 

 can scarcely do better than follow A. von Humboldt 

 here. 



The trunks of the Palms are sometimes misshapenly 

 thick, sometimes weak and cane-like ; sometimes swelling 

 out above, sometimes below, and at others in the middle ; 

 now smooth, as if turned in a lathe, now scaly, now 

 densely beset with black shining spines a foot long, now 

 wound about with a delicate net-work of brown fibres. 

 Strange they look when, lifted from the earth by the 

 roots which shoot out high \ip on the stem, they are, 

 as it were, many-footed, or conceal their origin in a 

 thick mass of root-fibres which have grown down 

 round it. The vast leaves are feathery or divided like a 

 fan; the strong leaf- stalks (that of the Date- Palm formerly 

 used in Genoa for walking-sticks) are sometimes smooth, 

 and sometimes sharply toothed. The green colour of 

 their leaves is sometimes deep and shining, sometimes of a 

 silvery white upon the under side. Now and then the 

 middle of the fan-shaped leaf is decorated with concentric 

 yellow and blue streaks, like the peacock's tail. 



In the carriage and physiognomy of the Palms, alto- 

 gether, there lies a character of grandeur, difficult to 

 express in words, produced particularly by the very 



