THE BOOK OF THE EOTAL 



mnbraculiferd) is one of tlie most wonderful and majestic 

 of the Palm tribe. Its stem sometimes reaches 100 feet in 

 height, standing like a slender piUar, from the top of which 

 expands on every side a crown of the largest leaves which any 

 jjlant is known to produce, and which in their native country 

 are much appreciated for their delightful shade. They are fan- 

 shaped ; and each of them, when laid on the ground, will form 

 a semicircle of 1 6 feet in diameter, and cover an area of nearly 

 200 superficial feet. From this crown springs an immense and 

 lofty spike of flowers, which rises in a delicate, airy, pyramidal 

 form. The bursting of the flower from its spatlie, or sheath, 

 is accompanied by a loud exjslosion. The tree, however, is rarely 

 to be seen in bloom, for it blows ljut once in its whole life, 

 and, having flowered, dies. Each floret takes ujjwards of 

 fourteen months to form and grow into ripe fmit, and the spike 

 of flowers proceeds so leisui'ely in pei'fecting the whole crop, 

 that it occupies thirty years in the process ; and when the last 

 floret has ran its course, the tree itself dies. 



Another interesting object is placed in the western middle 

 arcade — viz., a spar from one of the Gum-trees of Tasmania, 

 230 feet long. It has been cut to about half a foot square ; 

 and although the small diameter to which it has been reduced 

 gives a rather inadequate idea of the tree in situ, still it is 

 an admirable specimen of these lofty New Holland Gum-trees, 

 or Eucalypti, and wiU in a measure impress upon the mind what 

 a tree 230 feet in length really looks like. Unfortunately, 

 however, it is not in one piece, and thus loses some of its 

 value ; but the pieces are aU numbered, and fitted into each 

 other, and its authenticity is uudoul^ted. It was sent to be 



