542 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



at the extremity. Though often extremely disagreeable to the traveler, yet the ratans 

 are far from being useless. The natives of Java and the other islands of the Eastern 

 Archipelago cut the cane into fine slips, which they plait into beautiful mats, manu- 

 facture into strong and neat baskets, or twist into cordage ; and they are also exten- 

 sively exported to Europe, where they are chiefly employed for the making of chair 

 bottoms. 



On turning from Asia to the adjoining continent of Africa, we find a new world of 

 palms, several of which are no less valuable than the cocoa-nut or the palmyra, either 

 as affording food, or enriching by their produce the commerce of the world. 



The Date-tree, sung from time immemorial by the poets of the East, is as indispens- 

 able as the camel to the inhabitants of the wastes of North Africa and Arabia, and, 

 next to the "ship of the desert," the devout Mussulman esteems it the chief gift of 

 Allah. Few palms have a wider range, for it extends from the Persian Gulf to the 

 borders of the Atlantic, and flourishes from the twelfth to the thirty-seventh degree 

 of northern latitude. Groves of dates adorn the coasts of Valencia in Spain ; near 

 Genoa its plantations afford leaves for the celebration of Palm Sunday ; and in the 

 gardens of southern France a date tree sometimes mixes among the oranges and olives. 

 But it never bears fruit on these northern limits of its empire, and thrives best in the 

 oases on the borders of the sandy desert. Here it is cultivated with ther greatest care, 

 and irrigated every morning ; for, though it will grow on an arid soil, it absolutely 

 requires water to be fruitful. It is not to be wondered at that the tribes of the desert 

 so highly value a tree which, by enabling a family to live on the produce of a small 

 spot of ground, extends as it were the bounds of the green islands of the desert, and 

 rarely disappoints the industry that has been bestowed on its culture. It is considered 

 criminal to fell it while still in its vigor, and both the Bible and the Koran forbid the 

 warriors of the true God to apply the axe to the date trees of an enemy. 



Thus various forms of palms flourish along the banks of the Nile, but in general 

 Africa has a less number of these trees to boast of than either Asia or America. On 

 the other hand, neither India nor Brazil have palms of such vast commercial impor- 

 tance as the Cocos hutyracea, and the Elceis guineensis, the oil-teeming fruit trees of 

 tropical West Africa. The productiveness of the Elaeis may be inferred from its bear- 

 ing clusters of from 600 to 800 nuts, larger than a pigeon's egg, and so full of oil that 

 it may be pressed out with the fingers. 



Besides the hight of the shaft, the position of the leaves serves chiefly to impart a 

 more or less majestic character to the palms : those with drooping leaves being far less 

 stately than those whose fronds shoot more or less upwards to the skies. Nothing can 

 exceed the elegance of the Jagua palm, which along with the Splendid Cucurito adorns 

 the granite rocks in the cataracts of the Orinoco at Atures and Maypures. The fronds, 

 which are but few in number, rise almost perpendicularly sixteen feet high, from the 

 top of the lofty columnar shaft, and their feathery leaflets of a thin and grass-like texture 

 play lightly round the tall leaf-stalks, slowly bending in the breeze. The physiognomy 

 of the palms depends also upon the various character of their efflorescence. The spathe 

 is seldom vertical, with erect fruits ; generally it hangs downwards, sometimes smooth, 

 frequently armed with large thorns. 



In the palms with a feathery foliage, the leaf -stalks rise either immediately from the 

 brown rugged ligneous trunk (cocoa-nut, date), or, as in the beautiful Palma Real of 



