ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 137 



"In Palms with pinnate foliage, the leaf-stalks either 

 proceed (as in the Cocoa-nut, the Date, and the Palma Eeal 

 del Sinu) from the dry, rough, woody part of the stein ; 

 or, as in the Palma Eeal de la Havana (Oreodoxa regia) 

 seen and admired by Columbus, there rises upon the rough 

 part of the stem a grass-green, smooth, thinner shaft, like 

 a column placed upon a column, and from this the leaf- 

 stalks spring. In fan-palms, "foliis palmatis," the leafy 

 crown (as in the Moriche and the Palina sombrero de la 

 Havana) often rests on a previous bed of dry leaves, a cir- 

 cumstance which gives to the tree a sombre and melancholy 

 appearance. In some umbrella-palms the crown consists 

 of very few leaves, which rise upwards, carried on very 

 slender petioles or foot-stalks (as in Miraguama) . 



" The form and colour of the fruits of Palms also offer 

 much more variety than is commonly believed in Europe. 

 Mauritia flexuosa bears egg-shaped fruits, whose scaly, 

 brown, and shining surface, gives them something of the 

 appearance of young fir-cones. What a difference between 

 the enormous triangular cocoa-nut, the soft fleshy berries of 

 the date, and the small hard fruits of the Corozo ! But 

 among the fruits of palms none equal in beauty those of the 

 Pirijao (Pihiguao of S. Fernando de Atabapo and S. Bal- 

 thasar) ; they are egg-shaped, mealy, and usually without 

 seeds, two or three inches thick, and of a golden colour, 

 which on one side is overspread with crimson ; and these 

 richly coloured fruits, crowded together in a bunch, like 

 grapes, are pendent from the summits of majestic palm 



