PALMS. 
G3 
magnificent leaves over a trunk a hundred 
feet high. 
In the more ancient geography they may 
be mapped as adorning Central France, and 
fringing the estuary of the Thames at 
Sheppey with abundant foliage. 
Many tribes of mankind in South America, 
Africa, and the Pacific Islands, derive the 
whole of their maintenance and shelter from 
the palm. Before Columbus ventured on 
his first voyage, the inhabitants of the 
Azores had seen carved blocks of this wood 
thrown on their shores by the western cur¬ 
rents, telling them that man and his food 
convenient” existed beyond the great waters, 
but there are no such relics to startle the 
observer on geological shores. Amidst the 
most abundant vegetation of former periods, 
we do not discover one single instance of the 
occurrence of a fruit adapted to the subsis¬ 
tence of man; but we discern amidst the 
absolute ehanges of organic life in the suc¬ 
cession of deposits, some approximations 
towards the present state of things. The 
Cycadean groves and palmy coasts of the 
middle age of geology, were merely prepar- 
