THE CABBAGE PALM, 
75 
flaTOnr, bot is more tender and delicious. It is asnally 
cut into pieces, boiled, and served as an auxiliary vege- 
table Avitli meat. To obtain this small portion, borne on 
the pinnacle of tlie tree, and hidden from the eye of 
inan^ the axe is applied to the stately trunk, and its 
towering pride laid low. 
Besides its cabbag-e, the Oreodoxa furnishes another 
great delicacy to the table. After the removal of the 
Eeart, a kind of black-beetle deposits its egg in the 
cavity, from i^-hicb fat grubs are developed, growing to 
the size and thickness of a inJin's thumb. These, though 
disgusting in appearance, ^vhen fried in a pan, with a 
very little butter and salt, have a taste ^vhich savours 
of all the spices of India. 
Both the Oreodoxa and the Cei-oxylon are iar sur- 
passed in height by the Califomian firs and the Eucalypti 
of Austi-alia, but no other trees rise so proudly iu the 
air on shafts comparatively so slender. While the enor- 
mous trunks of the Sequoias and Wellingtouias remind 
one of the massy pillars of our old Gothic churches, the 
graceful palms recall to our memory the slender Ionic 
or Corinthian columns which adorn the masterpieces of 
Grecian architecture. 
The oil of the Corozo is usually burnt in the houses 
and churches of Carthagena and New Granada ; and the 
Oenmirjn's disticha is cultivated in Brazil, as it furnishes 
an excellent oil for culinary purposes. The Pirijao is 
planted round the huts of the Indians, and replaces in 
some districts the llauritia as the tree of life. The 
I*ia<:;ava, whose stone-hard dark-brown nuts are manu- 
factured into rosaries by the inhabitants of Villa Nova do 
Olivenza, is far more important, on account of its fibres, 
which, nnlinown a few years ago, are now imported into 
England in large quantities, where they serve for making 
brootm? ; and the amazingly hard nuts of the Cabeza di 
Negro, rivalling ivory in whiteness, solidity, and beauty, are 
extensively used by our turners for similar purposes. 
