30 



POPULAR GARDEN BOTANY. 



have been introduced into this country, as C. urens, from 

 the East Indies ; horrida, from South America ; and mitis, 

 from China : the two former require the heat of the stove, 

 but the latter bears the cooler air of the greenhouse, and 

 when well treated and favourably situated, is a graceful ad- 

 dition; its fine leaves are often three or four feet long, 

 drooping, and twice pinnated ; the straw-coloured flowers 

 are in a branched spike, and these are succeeded by round 

 black berries, which are however not eatable. The £7. mens 

 in its native country often attains the height of sixty feet, 

 and has fine pinnated leaves ; the stem yields a sweet and 

 pleasant liquor, called toddy, which is boiled by the natives 

 of Ceylon, and made into sugar, called jaggory ; the pith 

 makes sago, and the bud is likewise eaten as a cabbage. 

 The best soil for the greenhouse species is a sandy loam. 



CHAMiEROPS. (Fan Palm.) 



Gen, Char, (Polygamia Dicecia.) Spatha double, leathery, florets 

 with bracts ; calyx three-cleft ; corolla of three petals ; filaments 

 dilated at the base. 



The name is of uncertain derivation. Some of the species 



