﻿On Palm Trees. 



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fan. I am familiar with three noted forms, which characterize their stems : 

 The tree form, as in the palmetto of Florida; the vine form, as in the 

 rattan ; and the melon or pineapple form, as in the cycas. 



There are one thousand species, and they are found in tropical and semi- 

 tropical regions, where they are of universal utility to mankind. They 

 furnish thatching for houses, brooms, baskets, hats, matting, cordage, 

 twine, thread, writing material, oil, soap, candles, resin, wax, food of the 

 nut or kernel and sago, milk, flour, salt, cement, cabbage, dragon-blood and 

 paint, sap, tannin, yeast, palm-wine toddy, arrack, treacle, sugar, and many 

 other things. 



We will now speak of the "cycas" form. Some would say that it re- 

 sembles a turnip; but, in truth, it merely looks like it, for the turnip is 

 dicotylodonous and exogenous; has netted-veined leaves, a tap-root, and 

 belongs to a class of vegetation possessing hardwood stems, with concen- 

 tric annular rings of growth, and a true bark, composed of several coat- 

 ings. 



Palm plants do possess intimate analogies to the common onion, which 

 is monocotyledonous, endogenous, has parallel-veined leaves; no true bark; 

 no consecutive rings of hard, woody matter; no radiating medullary rays. 



In Florida we have the saw palmetto (Sabal Serrulate), the prickly pal- 

 metto (S. hystrix), the cabbage tree palmetto (Chamcerops palmetto'), the 

 royal palm (Oredoxa regia), the cocoanut tree (Cocos micifera), the 

 dwarf palmetto (Sabal Adansonii), and the date palm (Phcenix dactylifera) . 



Mr. D. L. James informs me that the date palm is found growing at St. 

 Augustine, Fla. 



. The saw grass palmetto possesses a trunk about the size of a fence rail, 

 which lies prone upon the ground, so that traveling in a wagon over a new 

 road in Florida nearly jolts the life out of you. 



The rattan is of great use in chair-making — comes mostly from China. 

 It possesses long, slender stems, with hard, glossy, silicious epidermis. The 

 leaves are pinnate ; grow with some distance between the nodes, often ter- 

 minate in tendrils. The slender stems, which are sometimes 500 feet long, 

 cling to neighboring trees. These stems look like cordage, and are used 

 by the people of India in catching elephants. 



This plant forms the connecting link between the gramineous plants 

 and the palms. 



The royal palm (Oredoxa regia) I found growing luxuriantly at Cape 

 Sable, the extreme southern point of Florida. It has pinnate leaves, and the 

 trunk is from 60 to 100 feet in height. The wood , when dressed and varnished, 

 is often made into billiard cues and walking canes. Some of the cycas- 



