62 
BOTANICAL COLLECTIONS. 
[UPPER 
This order is of great importance to the inhabitants of tropical 
countries, as it supplies from one species or other, and sometimes 
from a single species, almost every article needed by them for food, 
clothing, shelter, or labour. 
Case 10 is occupied by specimens of the tribe Cocoin^e. Of the 
Cocoa-Nut itself ICocos nucifera), may be noticed a section of the stem; 
a large bunch of fruits still attached to the branched spadix ; some 
separate fruits of different forms ; a large bottle, forming part of Sir 
Hans Sloane's Collection, and containing both male and female inflo- 
rescence, and some smaller bottles, one containing germinating nuts in 
various stages of advancement. At the back of the Case is a fruit- 
bearing spadix, together with an unopened spathe and a frond, 
of Cocos coronata, from Brazil, the fruits of which are scarcely 
more than an inch in length. By the side of these is a fine speci- 
men of the fruit-bearing spadix of Maximiliana regia, inclosed 
in its singular boat-shaped spathe. Below are numerous male and 
female spadices, the latter bearing fruit, of the Oil-palm of Western 
Africa, Elceis guineemis, so important for the supply of palm-oil. 
Case 11 contains specimens of the tribes Borasstn^e and Cory- 
phin^. To the first of these tribes belong several interesting palms, 
such as : — Borasms flabellifnrmis, the Palmyra palm, widely distributed 
over tropical Asia, and applied by the natives to uses which are almost 
innumerable. It is the great source of the toddy or palm wine. 
Lodoicea Seychellarum., confined to the Seychelles, is called the " Sea 
Cocoa-nut," because it was for a long time only known from the nuts 
found floating on the sea or cast ashore, and it was believed to be a 
submarine palm. The immense fruits weigh from thirty to fifty 
pounds. Externally they are covered with a thick fibrous bark, which 
contains usually one, sometimes two, rarely three, nuts with hard black 
shells, each divided half way down into two lobes. A fine speci- 
men with three nuts is exhibited. The seeds take ten years to ripen. 
Manicaria saccifera is remarkable among palms for possessing en- 
tire leaves, which are of great size, being frequently thirty feet long, 
and from four to five feet wide. The inflorescence and its curious 
spathe is placed on the left side of the Case. On the same side may 
be seen the fruits of several species of Hypluene. This is the only 
genus of palms which is normally branched. To it belongs the Doum 
palm thebaica); the fruit of which is eaten by the poorer classes 
in Egypt ; it has a taste like gingerbread. Fruits of two other species 
are placed in the Case, H. coriacea from Madagascar, and H. Wel- 
witschii, recently discovered by the illustrious traveller after whom it is 
named in Central Africa. 
To the tribe CoryphiNjE belongs the only indigenous European 
palm, Chamarops humilis, the northern limit of which is about Nice. 
Mr. Fortune has introduced another species (C. Fortunei), which is 
sufficiently hardy to stand the winter in the South of England. The 
walking-sticks called " Pennng Lawyers" are the, stems of Licuala 
acutijida. The famous Talipot palm (Corypha umbrae ulif era) (a great 
fan-shaped leaf of which is placed over the Cases) belongs to this 
