66 



NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP. them. Among thefe was a difli of mountain-cabbage* 

 XIX. -g ^Yie moft efteemed of all the various forts which 



Li II '^.^ I f 



grow, as I have mentioned formerly, on the different 

 fpecies of palm-trees ; this tree grows fometimes near 

 fifty feet high, the trunk of a brown colour, hard,, 

 ligneous, divided into fhort joints, and pithy within, 

 like the elder : it is thick in proportion, flreight and 

 tapering like the maft of a fhip ; near the top the tree 

 alTumes a fluted form and a green colour, occafioned 

 by the hufky tegument that forms the branches ; 

 which,, near the fummit, diverge in a horizontal di- 

 reilion, like the crown of a pine-apple or ananas. Thefe 

 branches are covered over on both lides with ilrong. 

 pinnated leaves about three feet long, of a deep greea 

 colour, and iharp pointed, but folded and confufedly in** 

 termixed, not gracefully drooping like thofe of the mani- 

 _ cole or cocoa-nut trees.. The feed is inclofed in a brown- 

 ifh kind of fpatha,. that arifes from the center of the 

 branches^ and hanging downwards confifts of fmall' 

 roundifli nuts, not unlike a bunch of dried grapes> bufc 

 much longer in proportion to their circumference. If 

 the cabbage is wanted, the whole tree mufl be cut down,., 

 when it is divefted firft of its branches, and next of that 

 fltited green hufky tegument that forms them ; after this, 

 the heart or cabbage is taken out, white, and about two or 

 three feet long : it is as thick as a man's arm, and round ? 

 like a polifhed ivory cylinder ; it is compofed of a kind of; 

 tender longitudinal white flakes, like filk ribbands, ready 

 X ta'> 



