The Garden Magazine, November, 1923 
171 
the largest specimen. When leafless the Baobab is perhaps the 
ugliest of all trees, but when clad with leaves and flowers is a no¬ 
ble example of vegetable growth. The huge egg-shaped pointed 
fruits are full of a powdery mass which tastes like cream-of- 
tartar and that name is therefore often applied to the tree. 
But gorgeous and wonderful as they are these and other 
tropical trees of similar character have no value to the green¬ 
houses of northern lands. Here they may serve to give a glimpse 
of tropical tree-growth before we discourse on those of lesser 
size but to us of greater value. 
Palms which Fringe the Ocean-girt Lands 
P ALMS are a feature of the tropics and are so associated in 
the minds of all folk. A few species are found in the 
warm temperate regions, but the family is essentially equatorial. 
The indispensable Kentias, Belmoreana and Forsieriana, hail 
from Lord Howe Island off the east Australian coast. The 
exquisite Phoenix Roebilinii comes from southeastern Asia; the 
older P. reclinata is African and P. rupicola is indigenous on the 
foothills of the eastern Himalayas; the familiar fan-leaved 
Livistona chinensis or L. borbonica hails from Liukiu and the 
Bonin Islands. There are many hundreds of species, the major¬ 
ity of them local in their distribution, but some like the Cocoa- 
nut, which fringes the ocean-girt lands of all the tropics, are 
wide-spread. All are beautiful and possessed of characters by 
which the veriest tyro recognizes a Palm immediately, never 
mistaking it for some 
other plant. Many are 
of great economic im¬ 
portance yielding fibres, 
oils, edible fruits, starch, 
and sugar, and, to the 
peoples of the tropics, are 
the most important of all 
the families of the vege¬ 
table kingdom. Their 
uses are indeed legion. 
The Tamil people of In¬ 
dia have a song which 
enumerates eight hun¬ 
dred and one uses of the 
Palmyra Palm ( Borassus 
flabellifer). Perhaps the 
chief use of this Palm, 
however, is the produc¬ 
tion of palm - wine or 
toddy, which is obtained 
by tapping the sap flow¬ 
ing to the inflorescence 
and fermenting it. For 
this purpose the Palmyra 
is cultivated in enormous 
quantities in India and 
elsewhere. 
The Talipot Palm 
(Corypha umbraculifera ), 
native of Indo-Malaya 
and Ceylon, grows ioo ft. 
tall and has the distinc¬ 
tion of bearing the largest 
inflorescence known in 
the whole vegetable king¬ 
dom. This gigantic, 
much-branched, panicu¬ 
late mass of tiny white 
flowers terminates the 
life of the tree and is 
often as much as io ft. 
high and wide. The 
Sago Palms ( Metroxylon 
Rumphii and M. laeve) have an inflorescence fully 6 ft. by 6 ft. 
and die after flowering, but from an underground shoot other 
stems are produced so that the clump of Palms does not cease 
to exist. Sago is obtained by cutting down the trees on which 
the inflorescence appears, splitting the trunks, and crushing and 
washing the pith. 
Voyagers of the Middle Ages told many wondrous tales of the 
marvels of the tropics, but none more fabulous than that of the 
Coco-de-mer or Double Cocoanut ( Lodoicea secbellarum). The 
fruit is bilobed and is the largest known among Palms and takes 
ten years to ripen. It grows naturally only on the Seychelles, 
a small group of islands in mid-Indian Ocean. Long before its 
habitat was known the fruit was found floating in the Indian 
Ocean and was supposed to be the product of some submarine 
tree. On account of their mysterious origin and remarkable 
shape these fruits were for centuries regarded with awe and 
wonder, considered of enormous value and esteemed a universal 
antidote against all ills, finding a place of honor in temples and 
churches, especially in the Spanish colonies in South America. 
The discovery of the habitat of this Palm combined with the 
over-enterprise of a certain sea captain who loaded his ship with 
them caused the bottom to fall out of the market. To-day these 
fruits are only objects of curiosity. The tree itself grows ioo 
ft. tall and has enormous fan-shape leaves; it is one of the 
noblest of all Palms. 
A feature of the tidal, muddy shores of the tropics, where 
they form thickets and help to reclaim land, are various species 
of Mangroves. In the 
Old World some twenty- 
two species occur, in 
America four. These 
plants present a great 
similarity in habit and 
other characteristics 
though they belong to 
several families. They 
are in general much- 
branched bushes or low 
trees with a great de¬ 
velopment of aerial roots, 
both buttressing roots 
from the main stem and 
supporting pillar roots 
from the branches. Some 
like Bruguiera, Avicen- 
nia, and Sonneratia have 
in quantity erect color¬ 
less aerating roots rising 
out of the mud suggest¬ 
ing a mass of stout bris¬ 
tles of weird aspect. The 
seedsof many Mangroves 
germinate in the fruit 
whilst still attached to 
the tree and develop long 
primary roots which hang 
down and are often a foot 
in length. In due season 
the seedling falls, the root 
sticks in the soft oozing 
mud, and the young 
plant escapes the danger 
of being carried away by 
the tide. Mangrove 
swamps, though of great 
interest, are the most un¬ 
healthful places in the 
tropics. 
The coming of the 
white man with his 
boundless energy and 
THE FRINGES OF A MALAYAN FOREST 
With the beautiful, smooth trunk of Dipterocarpus alatus tower¬ 
ing like a giant’s wand against the dusky background of trees 
