PAL 
nut into drinking bowls, the kernel of the nut affords 
them a wholfome food, and the milk contained in the 
(hell a cooling liquor. The leaves of the trees are 
ufed for thatching their houfes, and are alfo wrought 
into baikets, and moil other things which are made of 
Oilers in Europe. 
This tree is propagated by planting of the nuts, which 
in lx weeks or two months after planting will come 
up, provided they are frefii and thoroughly ripe, 
which is what few of them are which are brought to 
England ; for they ahvavs gather them before they 
are ripe, that they may keep during their paffage ; fo 
that the beft way to bring nuts into England for 
planting, would be to take fuch of them as are fully 
ripe, and put them in dry fand in a tub, where the 
vermin may not come to them ; and thefe will often 
fprout in their paffage, which will be an advantage, 
becaufe then they may be immediately planted into 
pots of earth, and plunged into the bark-bed. 
Thefe plants, in the hot i lands of America, make 
conlderable progrefs in their growth, in which places 
there are fome trees of very great magnitude *, but in 
Europe it is of much flower growth, being many years 
before it advances to any confiderable height ; but as 
the young leaves of this plant are pretty large, they 
make a good appearance amongft other tender exotic 
plants in two or three years time. This plant is pre- 
ferved in fome curious gardens in England for variety, 
where it muft be placed in the bark-ftove, and ma- 
naged as hath been diredted for the other kind of 
Palm •, obferving, as often as they are tranfplanted, 
not to cut their flrong roots, which is generally death 
to moil of the Palm kind. Thefe plants muft not be 
too much confined in their roots, for if they are, they 
will make but little progrefs ; therefore, when the 
young plants have filled the pots with their roots, 
they (hould be Ihifted into tubs of a moderate fize, 
that their roots may have room to extend ; but thefe 
tubs muft be kept conftantly plunged into the bark- 
bed, otherwife the plants will not thrive. The me- 
thod of raifing thefe plants from the nuts, when they 
are planted before they have fprouted, is fully de- 
fcribed under the article of raifing exotic feeds ; to 
which the reader is defired to turn, to avoid repetition. 
The third fort is commonly called Macaw-tree by the 
inhabitants of the Britifh Iflands in America ^ this 
rifes to the height of thirty or forty feet. The item 
is generally larger toward the top than at bottom •, 
the branches (or rather the leaves) are winged ; the 
fmall leaves or lobes are long and very broad •, the 
ftalk and leaves are ftrongly armed with black fpines 
of various iizes in every part v the male and female 
flowers are on the fame tree, coming out in the fame 
manner as the Cocoa-nut. The fruit is about the 
fize of a middling Apple, and is inclofed in a very 
hard fhell. 
The Macaw-tree is very common in the Caribbee 
Iflands, where the negroes pierce the tender fruit, 
from whence flows out a pleafant liquor, of which 
they are very fond *, and the body of the tree affords a 
folid timber, with which they make javelins, arrows, 
&c. and is by fome fuppofed to be a fort of Ebony. 
This tree grows very flow, and requires to be kept 
warm in winter. 
The fourth fort is commonly called Cabbage-tree in 
the Weft-Indies ; this rifes to a very great height in 
the countries where it grows naturally. Ligon in his 
Hiftory of Barbadoes fays, there were then fome of 
thefe growing there, which were more than two hun- 
dred feet high, and that he -was informed they were 
a hundred years growing to maturity, fo as to pro- 
duce feeds. The ftalks of thefe trees are feldom 
larger than a man’s thigh ; they are fmoother than 
thofeof moft other forts, for the leaves naturally fall 
off entire from them, and only leave the veftigia or 
marks where they have grown. Thefe leaves (or 
branches) are twelve or fourteen feet long ; the fmall 
leaves or lobes are about a foot long, and half an inch 
broad, with feverai longitudinal plaits or furrows end- 
ing in fort acute points ; thefe are not fo ftiff as thofe 
P A L 
of the firft fort, and are placed alternately. The 
flowers come out in long loofe bunches below the 
leaves ; thefe branch out into many loofe firings, and 
are near four feet long, upon which the flowers are 
thinly placed. The female flowers are fucceeded by 
fruit about the fize of a Hazel nut, having a yeliow- 
ifh (kin, fitting clofe to the firings of the principal 
foot-ftalk. 
As the inner leaves of this encompafs the future buds 
more remarkably than moft of the other ipecies, fo it ' 
is diftinguiflhed by this appellation of Cabbage-tree j 
for the center fhoots, before they are expofed to toe 
air, are white and very tender, like moft other plants 
which are blanched and this is the part which is cut 
out and .eaten by the inhabitants, and is frequently 
pickled and lent to England by the title of Cabbage 
but whenever thefe fhoots are cut out, the plants de- 
cay, and never after thrive j fo that it deftroys the 
plants, which is the reafon that few of the trees are 
now to be found in any of the iflands near fettlemencs, 
and thofe are left for ornament. 
The fifth fort is commonly called Prickly Pole in 
Jamaica, where it naturally grows. Thefe trees are 
commonly found in thickets, where a great number 
of them are clofe together. Their ftalks are (lender, 
feldom more than five or fix inches diameter, but rife 
to the height of forty feet, and are clofely armed with 
long thorns. The leaves are placed circularly on the 
top, (as in moft of thefpecies.) Thefe are winged,, 
but the lobes are (barter and greener than thofe of 
the other forts, and are clolely armed with thorns. 
The flowers come out in the fame manner as thofe of 
the Cocoa-nut, upon long branching foot-ftalks ; 
they are larger than the largeft gray Peas, flatted at 
the top, and are covered with a red (kin. The inha- 
bitants of Jamaica make rammers and rods for fcower- 
ing of guns, of the ftems of thefe trees, which are 
very tough and pliable ^ but there is no ufe made of 
any other part, fo far as I can learn. 
The fixth lbrt is called in the Weft-Indies the Oily 
Palm, and by fome Negroes Oil, for the fruit of this 
tree was firft carried from Africa to America by the 
negroes. It grows in great plenty on the coaft of 
Guinea, and alfo in the Cape de Verd Iflands, but 
was not in any of our American colonies till it was 
carried there ; but now the trees are in plenty in moft 
of the iflands, where the negroes are careful to propa- 
gate them. 
The branches, (or rather the leaves) of this tree, are 
winged ; the fmall leaves or lobes, are long, narrow, 
and not fo ftiff as moft of the other forts ; the foot- 
ftalks of the leaves are broad at their bafe, where they 
embrace the ftem, dirnimfhing gradually upward, and 
are armed with ftrong, blunt, yellowilh thorns, which 
are largeft at their bate. The flowers come out at the 
top of the ftem between the leaves ; fome bunches 
have only male flowers, others have female ; the lat- 
ter are fucceeded by oval berries, bigger than thofe 
of the largeft Spanifh Olives, but of the fame fliape ; 
thefe grow in very large bunches, and when ripe are 
of a yellowifh colour. 
From the fruit the inhabitants draw aq oil, in the fame 
way as the oil is drawn from Olives •, from the body 
of the tree they extract a liquor, which, when ferment- 
ed, has a vinous quality, and will inebriate. The leaves 
of the tree are wrought into mats by the negroes, on 
which they lie. 
The feventh fort is called Palmetto-tree, or Thatch, 
by the inhabitants of Jamaica, where this tree grows 
upon all the honey-comb rocks in great plenty. 
It riles with a (lender ftalk ten or twelve feet high, 
which is naked and fmooth, and at the top garnifh- 
ed with many fan-fhaped leaves placed circularly ; 
thefe have foot-ftalks two or three feet long, which 
are armed with a few ftrong, green, crooked fpines ; 
the pinnae, or lobes, do all meet in one center, where 
they join the foot-ftalk, and are joined together a 
third part of their length from their bate ^ they are at 
firft clofely folded into plaits, but afterward fpread 
out like a fan ; their ends being pliant: often hang 
downwards 
