PALMS AND CYCADS. 



LINNJEUS, having regard to their beauty and utility, not inappropriately described 

 Palms as " Princes of the vegetable kingdom." Few spectacles are more im- 

 posing than choice and well-managed collections of Palms. They are plants which may 

 be looked at again and again, and always with admiration if seen in the best cultural 

 condition. They have a history, too, and uses which cannot be ignored. How graphi- 

 cally Melville, in his "South-Sea Adventures," describes the uses of the Cocoa-nut 

 Palm, Cocos nucifera. The passage is worth reproducing here : — 



" The blessings this Palm confers are incalculable. Year after year the islander 

 reposes beneath its shade, both eating and drinking of its fruit ; he thatches his hut 

 with its boughs, and weaves them into baskets to carry his food ; he cools himself with 

 a fan plaited from the young leaflets, and shields his head from the sun by a bonnet of 

 its leaves. Sometimes he clothes himself with the cloth-like substance which wraps 

 round the base of its stalks. The nuts, thinned and polished, furnish him with a 

 beautiful goblet ; the dry husks kindle his fire ; the fibres are twisted into fish-lines and 

 cords for his canoes. He heals his wounds with a balsam compounded from the juice of 

 the nut, and with the oil extracted from it embalms the bodies of the dead. Sawn into 

 posts, the trunks uphold his dwelling, and converted into charcoal it cooks his food. He 

 impels his canoe through the water with a paddle made from its wood, and goes to battle 

 with clubs and spears of the same hard material." 



That is only one species out of five hundred or more. Others yield food in the form 

 of fruit, such as dates, the produce of Phcenix dactylifera ; sago, sugar, oil, wax, wine, and 

 other articles of commerce are also afforded by Palms. It is interesting to note these 

 facts, though Palms are only grown in this country as ornamental plants, and as such 

 they will be treated in this work, with others that are commonly associated with 

 them, though belonging to an entirely different family. 



Take away Palms and Cycads from our conservatories and plant-houses and they 

 would leave vacancies not easily filled. In a small state the plants are admirably 

 adapted for table and house decoration, their elegance and durability being equalled by 



