The Palms. 349 



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that descend from the leaves, with those previously forming 



the exterior. In most of the species with long, slender, trailing 

 stems, the outside is additionally hardened by a copious depo- 

 sition o[ silex, as in the grasses. This is especially the case 

 with the Rattan, which will readily strike fire with steel. 



Palms are exclusively confined to the regions bordering on 

 the tropics in both hemispheres. Their chief habitation is in 

 South America, where they mostly abound in the low and hu- 

 mid parts of the country, though some species rise upon the 

 sides of mountains, almost to the limits of perpetual snow. In 

 general, each species is confined within very narrow bounds. 

 It is related by Humboldt, that in travelling through the cen- 

 tral part of South America, he found a new species at almost 

 every fifty miles. Although nearly two-thirds of the Palms 

 at present known are natives of South America, none have yet 

 been found in South Africa, where the distance from the 

 Equator is the same. Some species, however, appear to be 

 very easily spread by the agency of man, or by natural 

 causes ; and this is especially the case in regard to those which 

 are most capable of being made useful to man. The Cocoa- 

 nut, for example, is found in almost all the islands of the Poly- 

 nesian Archipelago, even in those as yet untenanted by man. 

 This is easily accounted for, when it is considered that the 

 Cocoa-nut may float a long time in the sea, without any injury 

 to the seed, which is protected by the fibrous husk, and dense 

 shell : but when cast up by currents of the ocean on the low 

 shores of these islands, the husk gradually separates, under 

 the combined influences of the sun, air, and moisture, by 

 which the seed is then excited to germination. 



It would be impossible here to enumerate all the uses to 

 which the various parts of these important trees, and their 

 products, are applied by the inhabitants of the countries where 

 they abound ; since these include almost every one for which 

 all other tribes of the Vegetable Kingdom are employed by 

 those who respectively possess them. Wine, oil, wax, flour, 

 sugar, salt, says the celebrated traveller, Humboldt, are the 

 produce of this tribe ; whilst their fabric affords the materials 

 of the habitations, weapons, and clothing of many nations. 

 The exterior of the stems, of most species, affords a wood 



