May, 1909.] 



MISCELLANEOUS PRODUCTS. 



VEGETABLE IVORY. 

 By H. A. Alford Nicholls, cm.g., 



M.D., F.L.S., 



President of the Dominica Agricultural 

 and Commercial Society. 



The plant which bears the seeds known 

 as vegetable ivory is named botanically 

 Phytelephas macrocarpa, and it has been 

 placed in an order, of which it is the 

 chief representative, called the Phytele- 

 phautinae. It differs from the palms 

 only in its flowers, which have an indefi- 

 nite number of stamens, but some botan- 

 ists — considering the characteristic in- 

 sufficient to constitute a natural order — 

 have made the Phytelephantinse a divi- 

 sion of the Palmeae. 



The tree is indigenous to Panama, 

 Columbia, and New Granada, and it has 

 received several colloquial names, the 

 chief of which is the vegetable ivory 

 palm. In those Spanish-American coun- 

 tries in which it mostly abounds, the 

 natives call it Marfil Vejetal, 



The tree has a thick, rough, creeping 

 trunk, from the under surface of which 

 roots are given off. The leaves, which 

 crown the stem, closely resemble in 

 their size, shape, and disposition, those 

 of the coconut palm. The male and fe- 

 male flowers are borne on different trees, 

 and the trunk of a male plant is always 

 taller and more erect than that of a 

 female. 



The inflorescence of the male plant is 

 a simple, fleshy, cylindrical spadix, 

 about four feet long, with four or five 

 spathes, and crowded with flowers, while 

 that of the female plant, which also 

 forms a simple but much shorter spadix, 

 bears from six to seven flowers, pure 

 white in colour. 



The flowers exhale a powerful perfume, 

 and this is more especially the case with 

 the large white female flowers, which 

 are, however, few in number. The ripe 

 fruit consists of three portions, an ex- 

 ternal one which is dark, rough, hard, 

 and woody ; a middle one that occurs as 

 an oily pulp of a yellow colour and 

 sweet taste; and an inner portion— the 

 seed — which is the vegetable ivory of 

 commerce. The oily pulp is collected at 

 the right season and sold under the 

 name of Pipa de Jagua in New Granada, 

 while the seeds are exported for use, 

 as their name implies, as a substitute 

 56 



for ivory. The fruits grow from the 

 stem just above the bases of the leaves, 

 and they occur in aggregations of six or 

 seven. The natives of Columbia call 

 this collection of fruits Jagua, or Cabeza 

 de Negro, on account, no doubt, of their 

 resemblance in size and shape to a 

 negro's head. Each fruit contains from 

 6 to 9 seeds, so that in one collection or 

 bunch of fruits there may be as many as 

 sixty seeds, or ivory nuts, as they are 

 commonly called. The seeds have a 

 rough crust, of a dark-brown or slate 

 colour, enclosing the white albumen 

 which at one end surrounds the small 

 embryo. The albumen, or the so-called 

 ivory, is of a dull opalescent colour, but 

 it becomes whiter and more opaque by 

 exposure to the light and air. It is 

 softer and less brittle than ivory, and 

 it is therefore much used as a substitute 

 for the more costly tusk of the elephant. 

 By chemical analysis the albumen of 

 the seed has been found to consist of a 

 combination of cellulose, gum, caseine, 

 oil, and albumen, with some residual 

 ash. 



The tree was first seen by the Spanish 

 botanists Ruiz and Pa von in the groves 

 of the hotter parts of the Peruvian 

 Andes, and it was described by them 

 under the name Phytelephas macrocarpa. 

 The following extracts from the memo- 

 randa of these botanists is of interest:— 



' The Indians cover their cottages with 

 the leaves of this most beautiful palm. 

 The fruit at first contains a clear 

 insipid fluid, by which travellers allay 

 their thirst, afterwards this same 

 liquor becomes milky and sweet, and 

 it changes its taste by degrees as it 

 acquires solidity, till at last it is almost 

 as hard as ivory. The liquor contained 

 in the young fruits becomes acid if they 

 are cut from the tree and kept some 

 time. Prom the kernels the Indians 

 fashion the knobs of walking-sticks, the 

 reels of spindles, and little toys, which 

 are whiter than ivory, aud so hard, if 

 they are not put under water— and if 

 they are, they become white and hard 

 again when dried. Bears devour the 

 young fruit with avidity.' 



The tree, as far as I know, is not culti- 

 vated to any extent, the seeds being 

 gathered by the natives from plants in 

 the wild state. Large quantities of 

 vegetable ivory are obtained from the 

 banks of the river Magdelena, and are 

 exported from Panama to the home 

 markets, 



