PALM. 



PALMACE^. 



This is one of the largest and most important orders of 

 plants known toman. The one thousand* or more known 

 species are distributed over the tropical and semitropical 

 regions of the entire world. Only a few species, including the 

 palmettos of the Gulf States and the fan palms of Calfornia, 

 are native in the United States. 



Palms have tall, columnar trunks without branches, but 

 with crowns of large leaves at their summits. Their forms 

 and proportions are often magnificent. The wood is soft, 

 light, more or less porous, difficult to work, and not strong. 

 The shapes of trunks sometimes cause them to be locally- 

 prized for piles, while the porous qualities of the wood are 

 such as to repel teredo t There are many by-products, as 

 fruit, nuts, oil, etc. The rattan or cane palms of India and 

 the Malayan Islands sometimes grow to a height of two 

 hundred feet and are imported into Europe and America for 

 chair-bottoms and the like. 



Sudworthit enumerates the following as attaining to the 

 dignity of trees in the United States : 



Cabbage Palmetto (Sabal palmetto). Sargent Palm (Pseudophcenix sargentii). 



Silvertop Palmetto ( Thrinax micro€arfa\. Fanleaf Palm ( Washingtonia filifera). 



Silktop Palmetto (Thrinax parviflora). Royal Palm {Oredoya regia). 

 Mexican palmetto (Sabal mexicana). 



* Coulter, "Plants," p. 241. 



t "Marine Wood Borers," Snow Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., Vol. XL, pp. 195 

 and 204. 



X "Check List," U. S. Forestry Bui. No. 17. 



A. L. Wallace, "Palm Trees of Amazon and their Uses," London, 1853. 



185 



