274 A TEXT-BOOK OF BOTANY 
feather palms (Fig. 271). The flower clusters are enor- 
mous, cach cluster enclosed at first in a huge bract, which 
is often hard. In usefulness to man no monocotyle- 
donous family exceeds 
7 the palms except the 
grasses. Some of the 
prominent species are 
as follows: 
The coconut-palm 
is the most widely 
distributed palm, be- 
ing found in all trop- 
ical countries, and 
never very far from 
the sea, except us 
planted by man (Tig. 
272). Its slender 
trunk, about two feet 
in diameter, rises to 
a height of sixty to 
one hundred feet 
and bears a crown 
of downward curv- 
ing pinnate leaves. 
The coconut of com- 
merce is well known. 
It is really a stone-fruit (§ 143), in which the ovary wall 
has ripened in two layers: the outer a fibrous husk, corre- 
sponding to the flesh in a peach; the inner a heavy bony 
laver. When on sale, the outer husk has usually been 
stripped off, and at one end of the bony coat three round 
black sears are seen, which indicate that the pistil is 
made up of three carpels. All parts of the plant are 
used, not only the nuts and the oil from them, but also the 
leaves, the root, the sup of the voung parts, cte. 
Fic. 271.—A feather palm, closely related to the 
date-palm.—After lncLuer and PRANTL. 
