254 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



branch or division, and of the same thickness 

 througliout its whole length. When it attains 



this height, its diameter is fi-om a foot to eighteen 

 inches. From the summit of this majestic trunlj 

 it throws out a magnificent crown of leaves, 

 which are equally graceful in their formation 

 and their arrangement. The main stems of the 

 leaves ai-e from eight to twelve feet long, jirm, 

 sliining, and tapering; and each embraces, at its 

 insertion, a considerable part of the trunk. The 

 trunk of the palm is, in fact, made up of the 

 remains of leaves, the ends of which are pro- 

 minent just under the crown, but more obliter- 

 ated toward the root of the tree. The bottoms 

 of the leaves are enveloped in membranous 

 sheaths, or fringed with very tough fibrous mat- 

 ter. These leaves are pinnated, or in the form 

 of feathers, each leaf being composed of a great 

 number of long, narrow leaflets, which are al- 

 ternate, and of a bright lively gi'een. Near the 

 base of the leaf, these leaflets are often three feet 

 long; but even then they are not one inch in 

 bi-eadth; neither do they open flat, but remain 

 with a ridge in the middle, something like the 

 keel of a boat. When the leaves are young 

 they are twisted together, and matted up with 

 loose fibres, which open and disperse as the leaf 

 expands. The young leaflet is also armed at the 

 extremity with a hard black spine, or thorn. 

 They are more stiS^ and firm than the leaves of 

 any other tree. 



The trunk of the palm, though it is in some 

 parts remarkably hard and durable, can hardly 

 be considered as timber. It consists of longi- 

 tudinal fibres, which are not so much interwoven 

 as those of the branching trees; but have their 

 interstices filled with a sort of pith, or medul- 

 lary substance, when young, that is near the top, 

 where the young leaves are in the progress of 

 formation. This medullary substance is a sort 

 of sap; but in the older portions of the tree it 

 consolidates, though it always remains granular, 

 and, as is the case with the pith of trees, is as 

 easily divided across as longitudinally. Gener- 

 ally speaking, the medullary part of the palm is 

 much lighter in the colour than the fibrous part ; 

 and thus well consolidated palm trunks have a 

 beautifully mottled appearance when cut across. 

 The wood of the areca palm, or cabbage palm of 

 South America, is sometimes used in ornamental 

 furniture, under the name of cabbage wood; but 



it does not answer very well, as the ends of the 

 fibres are too hard, and the medullary matter too 

 soft, for holding glue. For the same reason, the 

 surface is very difficult to polish, and cannot be 

 preserved without varnish. The flowers come 

 out in large bunches or spikes, from between the 

 leaves; they are at first inclosed in a spatha or 

 sheath, which opens to let them expand, and 

 then shrivels and withers. 



The date palm is a dioecious tree, having the 

 male flowers in one plant, and the female, or 

 fi'uiting ones, in another. The male flowers are 

 considerably larger than the female; and the 

 latter, instead of stamens, have in the centres of 

 them, the rudiments of the dates, about the size 

 of small peas. 



The two distinct sexes of the date tree appear 

 to have been known from the remotest antiquity, 

 as they are noticed by all the ancients who de- 

 scribe the tree. It is not a little remarkable , 

 that there is a difi^erence in the fructification of 

 the wild date and the cultivated, though both 

 are precisely the same species. Wild dates im- 

 pregnate themselves, but the cultivated ones do 

 not, without the assistance of art. Theophrastus 

 and Pliny mention this fact ; and in every plan- 

 tation of cultivated dates, (jne part of the labour 

 of the cultivator consists in collecting the flowers 

 of the male date, climbing to the top of the 

 female with them, and dispersing the pollen on 

 the germs of the dates. So essential is this opera- 

 tion, that though the male and female trees are 

 growing in the same plantation, the crop fails if 

 it be not performed. Avery remarkable instance 

 of this is related by Delisle, in his Egyptian 

 Flora. The date trees in the neighbourhood of 

 Cairo did not yield a crop in the year 1800. The 

 French and Turkish troops having been fighting 

 all over the country in the spring, field labour 

 of every kind was suspended, and amongst the 

 rest, the fecundation of the date. The female 

 date trees put forth their bunches of flowers as 

 usual, but not one of them ripened into edible 

 fruit. The pollen of the male trees appears to 

 have been scattered over the country by the 

 winds ; and, as it had not been sufficiently abun- 

 dant for reaching the germs so as to ensure fruc- 

 tification, an almost universal failure was the 

 consequence. The Persians, according to the 

 elder Michaux, who travelled in the country, 

 were more provident than the Egyptians. In a 

 civil war, which was attended with all the ruin- 

 ous effects of anarchy, the male date trees of a 

 whole province were out down by the invading 

 troops, that the fructification of this necessary 

 of life might be stopped. But the inhabitants, 

 apprehending such a result, had been careful 

 previously to gather the pollen, which they pre- 

 \ served in close vessels; and thus they were en- 

 j abled to impregnate their trees when the country 

 ' was freed from the destroying army. It is said 



