Natural Science News. 



VOL. I 



ALBION, N. Y., APRIL 27, 1895. 



No. 13 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and Items of interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



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The Palmetto. 



There are two well known, in- 

 digenous species of the Palm fami- 

 ly in Florida. These are the com- 

 mon or Cabbage Palmetto, Sabal 

 palmetto, and the Saw Palmetto, 

 Sabal serrulata. The former is a 

 very graceful tree, usually from 

 twenty to thirty feet high, which is 

 found flourishing on the sandy 

 coast as far north as * North Car- 

 olina; the latter has a procumbent 

 trunk, and is found more abundant 

 further south, being very plentiful 

 in barren tracts in middle and 

 southern Florida. 



Both of these species have re- 

 cently become factors in the indus- 

 tries of the Southern States, and 

 cordage of an excellent quality is 

 prepared from the Cabbage Pal- 

 metto, and the wood of the Saw is 

 used for making a most serviceable 

 and almost indestructible scrub- 

 bing brush for household purposes. 

 The terminal leaves of the com- 

 mon palmetto or fans, as they are 

 often called by the natives, when 

 picked early, and while yet tender, 

 are easily slit up lengthwise, thus 

 forming long graceful fly brushes. 

 The occupation is agreeable and 

 the result a pleasing ornament, 

 which may be made available. It 

 is not uncommon to find a lot of 

 northern tourists thus engaged; 

 staid men vieing with the ladies 

 in the production of artistic fly 

 brushes for northern friends. 

 Thousands of articles of this na- 



* One of the leading features of the 

 emblem of South Carolina is a Palmetto. 



ture are carried to the north each 

 season, nearly all of which are 

 kept as ornamental curiosities by 

 admirers, who would hardly care 

 to use them for their intended pur- 

 pose. 



This terminal cabbage bud, 

 which branches out a leaf or fan, 

 once a month, * I am informed by 

 a reliable observer. It is from ten 

 to eighteen inches long and from 

 two to four inches in diameter, and 

 of a very dense substance. A care- 

 ful dissection readily shows the 

 leaflets or blades which are form- 

 ing in tender succulent wrapper-like 

 layers. The form and general 

 make up is but slightly like that of 

 the cabbage, and the palmetto, 

 therefore rather gets its name from 

 the resemblance in taste between 

 the bud and cabbage. The taste 

 of the raw vegetable is in no way 

 disagreeable. It is rather nutty, 

 and so tender as to require no ef- 

 fort in chewing, but there is a 

 sense of rawness left on the palate 

 which is not pleasant. The disa- 

 greeable features are largely over- 

 come by preparing the bud, boil- 

 ing, being the usual style of cook- 

 ing it, but I am fairly convinced 

 by experience that this vegetable 

 will never come into prominence 

 as a favorite dish. It is undoubt- 

 edly serviceable as an occasional 

 makeshift to those whose gardens 

 are not productive, but as a stand- 

 by, I do not think that it will ever 

 be a success. 



The bears have the reputation of 

 feeding on the bud, and it is claim- 

 ed that they are very fond of it. 

 How much truth there is in the 

 bear story it would be hard to at- 

 test, but a reliable man told me 

 that he had fed a captive bear 

 some buds and it seemed to enjoy 

 the treat amazingly. This man, 

 of course, had to chop the trees 

 down in order to get the buds, and 

 it is reasonable to suppose that if a 

 wild bear desired the cabbages, it 

 would have to climb for them and 

 dig them out. It is said that the 

 removal of the central bud of the 

 palmetto invariably kills it. If 

 this is so, and the bears are much 

 given to feeding on the buds, it nec- 

 essarily follows that the Cabbage 

 Palmetto would soon become a 



* From personal observations I can- 

 not agree with this theory, for, although 

 the leaves may appear monthly or of- 

 tener, in the summer, I can attest that 

 they are much more tardy in February 

 and March, and probably so through- 

 out the winter. 



rarity in a neighborhood where 

 bears are common, for, as the pal- 

 metto is a very slow grower, the 

 supply could not equal the demands 

 of the bears. However, it is fair 

 to say that bruin does feed occa- 

 sionally on palmetto cabbages as 

 he is a decidedly omnivorous brute. 



Notwithstanding that the pal- 

 metto is said to be quickly killed 

 by cutting out its central bud, be 

 the tree old or young, it is a very 

 difficult tree to destroy, no matter 

 how severe the injury to its bark. 

 I have seen hundreds of Cabbage 

 Palmettos from twelve to eighteen 

 inches in diameter at the base, 

 which had passed through several 

 severe scrub fires. In all cases 

 the outer coating, or what we 

 would call bark in an exogenous 

 tree, was badly burned away, and 

 it was a common sight to find trees 

 which were burned in to a depth of 

 an inch. Some trees were eaten 

 in all about their circumference to 

 a depth of three or four inches, and 

 often up and down for a space of 

 20 in. and yet even though ready to 

 topple over, the green tops still prov- 

 ed their vitality. In some cases, 

 where severe recent fires had dev- 

 astated the neighborhood and the 

 live oaks and other trees were 

 nearly all dead, the charred and 

 blackened trunks of the palmettos 

 looked far worse than the other 

 trees, yet the crown of green, though 

 sometimes singed on its lower 

 borders, towered proudly above, as 

 a promise of life. 



The growth of the Cabbage Pal- 

 metto, though slow, is exceedingly 

 interesting. Its early develop- 

 ment is not dissimilar from that of 

 others of the spadiceous division, 

 but so soon as a hard center, or 

 what we may call the trunk is form- 

 ed, a peculiarity is seen. Each 

 successive petiole rising from the 

 central bud, is in time provided 

 with a broad basal attachment. 

 The bud continues to shoot up 

 from the center while the boots, 

 as the stems are called by the 

 southerners, continue to hang long, 

 long after they are dead. And so 

 persistent are they, that in time the 

 green top of the tree may reach a 

 height of twenty-five feet or more 

 while the old, first stems still cling 

 to the base of the trunk. In this 

 way the tree trunk up to twenty 

 feet or more, generally about fif- 

 teen feet, is covered with these 

 dry, tenacious, fibrous stems. 

 These boots, or basal ends of stems 



