361 



THE PALM STOVE. 



The Palms constitute of themselves an entire group or order in the 

 natural system of arrangement, viz., Palmce. Some of them have been 

 known from the earhest times as supplying fruit, and even far more 

 valuable products. Several of them are cultivated with great care and 

 assiduity in tropical countries, where only the majority of them will exist. 

 They are amongst the most gigantic of the vegetable kingdom, yet, never- 

 theless, many of them were introduced to Europe a century or two ago, 

 and we may venture to state, that from one hundred and fifty to one hun- 

 dred and seventy distinct species are cultivated in the collection of the 

 Messrs. Loddiges alone, by far the richest collection of these plants in 

 Europe. 



Dr. Von Martins, a Bavarian traveller in Brazil, has done more to 

 elucidate the natural habits and botanical characters of these plants, than 

 all the botanists who preceded him. He has pubUshed some excellent re- 

 marks on the characters of the order, and concludes them in the following 

 interesting manner : — " Palms, the noble offspring of Terra and Phcebus, 

 are natives of those happy countries mthin the tropics, where the rays of 

 the latter are ever beaming. In all such climates they are to be found, 

 — with this limitation, however, that in the southern hemisphere they do 

 not overstep the thirty-fifth degree of latitude, nor in the northern the 

 fortieth. Most species are confined within fixed and naiTow bounds ; for 

 it comes to pass, that wherever a district is characterized by striking 

 pecuharities of soil or climate, those species exist that are not found else- 

 where ; but few, on the contrary, extend over a large extent of surface, as 

 the Cocos nucifera, Acrocromia sclerocarpa, Borassus flalelliformis, &c. 

 It is probable that the number of .palms existing on the face of the earth, 

 will be found by future travellers to amount to as many as a thousand 

 species. Most of them love the margins of springs and streams, but few 

 establish themselves on the shore of the ocean, and yet a smaller number 

 ascend into the alpine regions of their country. Some collect in large 

 forests, some are scattered singly or in clusters among woods and plains. 



