REVIEWS. 
39 
Popular History of the Palms and their Allies. By Berthold See- 
man, Ph.D., M.A,, F.L.S., &c. Reeve : London. 1856. 
The numerous publications of Mr. Reeve, belonging to the same series as 
that to which our article refers, are among the most successful attempts to 
bring a knowledge of different departments of Natural History within reach 
of those who have neither time nor opportunity to consult expensive and 
more purely technical works. Vast stores of facts have been long known 
to professional or amateur naturalists only, although eminently calculated 
to excite interest in the minds of others. The more general diffusion of 
such knowledge is a characteristic feature of the present age. Every fact 
in science is, in one way or another, an addition to the sum of man’s hap¬ 
piness. The relative value of such fact may differ in the estimation of 
parties, just as their tastes or aims are different. Additions to our stores 
of knowledge are frequently deemed important only because they have a 
direct bearing on the increase of commerce, and on the relations of different 
countries. We cannot find fault with such views, provided that the labours 
of men of science, instead of being despised, are duly valued, because they 
may lead to results conferring inestimable benefits on mankind. Many 
rest satisfied with being clothed and fed, and never trouble themselves as to 
the sources whence the necessaries of life are derived; they care not what 
countries produce such articles, and never consider how dependent they 
are on the efforts of their fellow-men in distant regions. Mr. Seeman’s 
work, and others of the same nature, are highly useful in promoting a 
knowledge of various “ common things.” The following extract may serve 
as a sample of the information conveyed, and of the pleasant style in which 
our author writes :— 
u Take, for instance, a walk in the streets of London, and observe everywhere 
how substances originally obtained from Palms, and turned to useful purposes, 
meet your eye. That ragged boy, sweeping the crossing, and begging you with a 
faltering voice, real or assumed, to remember poor Jack, holds in his hands a 
broom, the fibrous substance of which was cut by the wild Indians of Brazil from 
the stems of a Palm; that gentleman, dressed in the tiptop of fashion, who play¬ 
fully swings his “ Penang lawyer,” little thinks that in carrying that walking- 
cane he is, in fact, carrying a young plant of Licuala acutifida; that fine lady’s 
parasol-knob—what is it but a coquilla-nut turned into that shape? Those ‘ chip 
hats,’ so extensively worn on fine summer days, what are they made of?—the leaves 
of a Cuban Palm (Thrinax argentea). Look at that stand, with heaps of dates 
upon it, gathered on the borders of the great desert of Sahara, and eagerly pur¬ 
chased by the people; look at those fine cocoa-nuts, grown on the shores of the 
Indian ocean and the Caribbean sea, and here retailed in penny slices to the hum¬ 
bler inhabitants of the British metropolis. Step into a house, and there, too, you 
will observe many products obtained from Palms in the most remote corners of the 
globe. That thick, brownish matting, now so generally used for covering hails, 
staircases, and offices, is woven from the husk (mesocarpium) surrounding the cocoa- 
nut. Those beautiful pieces of furniture which arrest your attention are made of 
G 
