ON VEGETABLE IVORY PALM. 
363 
importation of this plant ; so that living specimens may now 
be seen in our stoves, and well-preserved specimens in vari- 
ous, but not in all states, in one of the cases of the Museum. 
From these, and from other sources, our brief history will be 
derived. 
The first notice of the existence of the Vegetable Ivory 
Palm was given by Ruiz and Pavon, in their Systema Vege- 
tabilium Florce Peruviance et Chilensis, published at Madrid, 
in 1798. There, under the name of Phytelephas macrocarpa, 
we find the following account of its native names and pro- 
perties : — 
" It is called Pullipunta and Homero by the Indians of the 
hot and low valleys of the Andes of Peru, about Chancha- 
moya, Vitor, Cuchero, and San Antonio de Playa grande, 
its native locality — Palma del Marsil, and Marsil vegetal by 
the Spaniards ; — while the fruit, on account of its size and 
appearance, is called Cabeza de Negro. The Indians cover 
their cottages with the leaves of this most beautiful Palm. 
The fruit at first contains a clear insipid fluid, with which 
travellers allay their thirst ; afterwards this same liquor be- 
comes milky and sweet, and it changes its taste by degrees 
as it acquires solidity, till at last it is almost as hard as ivory. 
The liquor contained in the young fruits turns acid if they 
are cut from the tree and kept some time. From the ker- 
nel the Indians fashion the knobs of walking-sticks, the reels 
of spindles and little toys, which are whiter than ivory, and 
equally hard, if they are not put under water ; and if they 
are, they become white and hard when dried again. Bears 
devour the young fruit with avidity." 
This species, P. macrocarpa, is characterized by having a 
* short caudex and very large heads of fruit," which distin- 
guish it from a second supposed species " destitute of caudex 
and with small fruit," P. microcarpa possessing the same na- 
tive names and properties. 
Humboldt next detected the palm in New Granada, espe- 
cially common on the banks of the Magdalena, wmere it is 
