USES OF PALMS. 



45 



tropical colonies, more especially as an Indian palm. 

 Phoenix sylvestris, also produces abundance of sugar, 

 and might be tried in its native country. 



Other articles of food produced from palms are, 

 cooking-oil from the cocoa-nut and baccaba palm, salt 

 from the fruit of a South American palm {Leopoldinia 

 major), while the terminal bud or " cabbage " of many 

 species is an excellent and nutritious vegetable ; so that 

 palms supply bread, oil, sugar, salt, fruit, and vege- 

 tables. Oils for various other purposes are made from 

 several distinct palms, while wax is secreted from the 

 leaves of some South American species ; the resin called 

 dragon's-blood is the product of one of the rattan 

 palms ; while the fruit of the Areca palm is the " betel- 

 nut " so universally chewed by the Malays as a gentle 

 stimulant, and which is their substitute for the opium 

 of the Chinese, the tobacco of Europeans, and the coca- 

 leaf of South America. 



For thatching, the leaves of palms are invaluable, and 

 are universally used wherever they are abundant ; and 

 the petioles or leaf-stalks, often fifteen or twenty feet 

 long, are used as rafters, or when fastened together with 

 pegs form doors, shutters, partitions, or even the walls 

 of entire houses. They are wonderfully light and strong, 

 being formed of a dense pith covered with a hard rind 

 or bark, and w^hen split up and pegged together serve 

 to make many kinds of boxes, which, when covered 

 with the broad leaves of a species of screw-pine and 

 painted or stained of various colours, are very strong 

 and serviceable as well as very ornamental. Kopes and 

 cables are woven from the black fibrous matter that 

 fringes the leaves of the sugar-palm and some other 



