202 
LAVATEft’s 
light, there is no doubt or difficulty in afcertaining 
to which family it belongs. 
In obferving the palm, we can eafily make the 
additional difcovery of its age, from the circular 
lines with which the furface of the flock is furrow- 
ed over, even fo far as to afleft the whole outward 
compafs. 
Befides thefe natural diftindlions, there are accb 
dental differences or difformities" to which a plan- 
tation is fubjeft from an interruption of growth, 
fuch as has fallen within the limits of every man’s 
obfervations at Paris, as we (hall prove by the fol- 
lowing cafe in point : — —We may fee there, in the 
King’s, or National Garden, a palm confiderably 
(hrunk in the middle, from a caufe well known, 
and hereafter explained. 
This plant was carried to the Ifle of France in a 
fmall chefl, and fliipped off for Europe in the year 
1789 ; but, notwithftanding the care taken of it 
upon the paffage, and afterwards, it continued long 
in a languifhing condition. At lafl, as the vege- 
tation had been entirely flopped, the flalk grew up 
feme inches, with this difference, — that the fecond 
growth was much fmaller than the former; and, 
although thefe frefh flioots have gradually rifen coii- 
fiderably, there flill are, and ever will be, vifible 
figns of that contraction ; for where this defeCt ap- 
pears, the circumference is thirteen inches, twenty- 
one lower, and eighteen above. This tree grew 
about 
