178 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



fences, baskets, ropes, making drums and ornaments. The 

 tender terminal bud is highly prized for food. From the 

 juice of the flower-stems, rich in sugar, by fermentation, 

 ■wine is made; and by distillation, a spirit is produced, 

 called arrack. The fibre from the sheaths (leaves) is made 

 into " coir'' rope, floor-matting, brushes, and brooms ; and 

 is used also for stuffing cushions. The Palm (Elceis 

 guineensis) of West Africa produces nuts, from which is 

 manufactured palm oil, used in the manufacture of 

 candies, soap, etc. The Wax Palm ( Copernica cerifera) of 

 Brazil furnishes a wood which takes a fine polish, and is used 

 for veneering, and a waxy secretion (on the leaves) used 

 for making candles. For ages the Date Palm (Phcenix dae- 

 iylifera) has been cultivated in Arabia and North Africa, 

 and furnishes a large portion of the food of the people of 

 these countries. The Dates are also imported into the 

 United States, after having been picked before quite ripe 

 and dried in the sun. The Ginger-bread Palm (ITyphcene 

 ihcbaioa) is a branching species of the upper Nile region, 

 which produces fruits the size of an apple, with the flavor 

 of ginger-bread. The tree furnishes a resin called Egypt- 

 ian Bdellium. A giant Palm, growing on the Seychelle 

 Islands of the Indian Ocean, is the Double Cocoa-nut 

 (Lodoicea Sechellarum). The nuts are oblong, appear as 

 if double, and weigh thirty to forty pounds; a single 

 branch will sometimes weigh four hundred pounds. It 

 takes ten years to ripen the fruit ; but the albumen is too 

 hard and horny to serve as food. The leaves are made 

 into hats, baskets, etc. The Eattan, or Cane Palms (Cala- 

 mus Rotang), of India and the Malayan Islands, have 

 slender, reed-like stems, which often grow two hundred to 

 three hundred feet high. They are used in making chair- 



