I 12 
Monocotyledons with Petaloid Flowers — Palmctcece . 
Cocoa-Nut ( Cocos nudfera), one of the most widely-diffused species of the Order, though chiefly restricted to 
tropical shores and rarely found far inland. It affords in its fruit, besides the valuable nut with its fleshy albumen 
and inclosed “milk,” a fibre, forming the outer pericarp, used for cordage, brushes and mats, imported under the 
name of “coir.” The sap collected from incisions in the flowering branches is a grateful beverage, “toddy,” from 
which arrack is distilled. The oil expressed from the albumen of the nut is used in soap- and candle-making ; 7 or 
8 nuts yielding about one quart. The terminal leaf-bud, as in American species of Areca, Sabal and other Palms, 
is cooked as “ cabbage.” The hard wood (porcupine wood) is employed in building, and the leaves as thatch. 
Date Palm ( Phoenix dactylifera), indigenous in Northern Africa and supplying to the desert tribes their more 
important wants. The saccharine fleshy pericarp is the common food of themselves and of their cattle. It has 
been introduced into Southern Europe, but North of the Mediterranean it rarely perfects its fruit: the leaves are 
used in festivals of the Roman Catholic Church. 
Oil Palm ( Elects guineensis) of Tropical Africa. From the small densely-clustered nuts, Palm oil, largely 
used in the manufacture of soap and candles, is obtained by boiling. 
Sagus Rumphii and allied species of the Indian Archipelago, Arenga saccharifera also of the Indian islands, 
and a few other species, contain in the cellular tissue of the central portion of the trunk an abundant farina, which 
is collected from felled trees, granulated artificially, and imported as sago. From the fibre of the leaves of the Ruffia 
Palm (Raphia Ruffia) the inhabitants of Madagascar fabricate the cloth commonly used for their clothing, 
Palmyra Palm (Borassus flabelliformis) of India is one of several species besides the Cocoa-Nut from which a 
vinous sap is collected. Boiled down it affords “ jaggery,” or palm-sugar. 
The Piassaba Palms ( Leopoldinia Piassaba and Attalea funiferd) of Tropical America yield a useful fibre 
derived from the leaf-stalks, imported as Piassaba fibre for cordage and street-brooms. The bony pericarp of the 
Attalea is used in turnery-work, as is the hard white albumen of the Vegetable Ivory Palm (. Phytelephas macrocarpa), 
a stemless or rather prostrate ally of the true Palms growing in the Isthmus of Panama and New Grenada. 
The long flexible stems of scandent species of Calamus in Malacca and the Indian Archipelago are imported 
as Rattans, used in caning chairs, broom-making, &c. 
The astringent nuts of Areca Catechu are gathered in enormous quantities in Tropical Asia to chew with lime 
and the leaves of a species of pepper. 
