544 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



the trunk, as in the mangroves, and many of the screw-pines, rests upon a number of 

 roots rising above the ground. Thus the T. exorrhiza, which grows on the banks 

 of the Amazon to the hight of a hundred feet, frequently stands upon a dozen or more 

 supports, embracing a circumference of twenty feet, and the trunk begins only six or 

 eight feet from the ground. The Yriartea ventricosa is still more curious, as the 

 spindle-shaped trunk, which at the top and at the bottom is scarce a foot thick, swells 

 in the middle to a threefold diameter, and, from its convenient form, is frequently 

 used by the Indians for the construction of their canoes. 



The form and color of the fruits is also extremely various. What a difference 

 between the large coco de mer and the date — between the egg shaped fruits of the 

 Mauritia, whose scaly dark rind gives them the appearance of fir-cones, and the gold 

 and purple peaches of the Pirijao, hanging in colossal clusters of sixty or eighty from 

 the summit of the majestic trunk. Notwithstanding the fecundity of the palms, gen- 

 erally but few individuals of each species are found growing wild, partly in conse- 

 quence of the frequent abortive development of the fruits, but chiefly on account of 

 the large number of animals — from the grub to the monkey — that are constantly feed- 

 ing upon them. 



When we consider the enormous range of territory over which the palm-trees 

 extend, and how very few of their many hundred species have hitherto been multiplied 

 and improved by cultivation, we can not doubt that many benefits are yet to be 

 expected from them, and that they will at some day rank high in the commercial 

 annals of the world. 



