Order Clxxiii
PALME These were well named by Linnæus, the princes of the vegetable world; for they far surpass all other plants in the grandeur and majesty of their port. Their lofty stem, supported by a mass of fibrous roots, which frequently creep along the surface of the ground, consists of wood with longitudinal fibres, soft in the centre, but hard as horn itself at the circumference; it is almost always unbranched, bearing a tuft of leaves at the summit; in a very few cases it is dichotomous, always round, and it terminates by a single bud; by the fall of the petioles of the leaves, which sheath it in a greater or less degree at the base, it is covered with large scars. The leaves, technically called fronds, are pinnate or flabelliform, never simple; and, in a young state, before they expand, they are folded up in plaits from the base to the apex. The flowers are small, with bracteæ at their base, either sessile or seated in some cavity, of a pallid color, and contained in a large bag called a spatha; when they open, the mass of inflorescence, called a spadix, bursts suddenly through the under side of the spatha, generally evolving the most fragrant odors. Impregnation takes place rapidly, through the injection of the pollen upon the humid surface of the stigmas, which gape open to receive it. The fruit is perfected in a period varying from six months to a year; when ripe it is a drupe or berry, with either a fibrous or fleshy coat; the mass of its kernel consists of oily albumen, which, in the case of the cocoa nut, is soft enough to be eaten, but which in most species is as hard as horn. Dr. von Martius, the celebrated traveller in Brazil, to whom the world is indebted for nearly all that is known of these plants, concludes his remarks upon the characters of the order in the following words: "Palms, the noble offspring of Terra and Phœbus, are natives of those happy countries within the tropics, where the rays of the latter are ever beaming. In all such climates they are to be found, with this limitation, however, that in the southern hemisphere they do not overstep the 35th degree of latitude, nor in the northern the 40th. Most species are confined within fixed and narrow bounds, for it comes to pass that wherever a district is characterized by striking peculiarities of soil or climate, those species exist which are not found elsewhere; but few, on the contrary, extend over a large extent of surface, as the Cócos nucifera, Acrocómia sclerocarpa, Borássus flabellifórmis, &c. It is probable that the number of palms existing on the face of the earth, will be found by future travellers to amount to as many as a thousand species. Most of them love the margins of springs and streams, but few establish themselves on the shores of the ocean, and yet a smaller number ascend into the alpine regions of their country; some collect in large forests; some are scattered singly or in clusters, among woods and plains. In the most ancient periods of the world, when the genera of plants were beginning to be formed, palms scarcely existed; they were preceded in the creation by the more ancient Ferns, Cycadeæ, Grasses, and Equisetaceæ. Some of their remains have, however, been found in variegated sandstone, and in limestone of the third order (fletzkalk), part of which belong to unknown species, and part to species still in existence. But in the times succeeding the deluge, they appear, from the written evidence of historians and poets, to have followed the footsteps of man, to whom their fruit yielded food, drink, and oil; their stems houses, arms, utensils, flour, and wine; and their leaves cordage and roofs for habitations. In cultivation their soil should be slightly saline; they are propagated by seeds more readily than by truncheons of the stem; when cultivated they undergo no alteration, except in producing more fleshy or stemless fruit: it is extremely difficult to transplant them beyond their own country; naturally their migration is absolutely opposed by the barriers of the ocean." 762 Corýpha W. 1982 Ságus W. 763 Licuala W. 1983 Cócos W. 764 Thrínax W. 1984 E'late W. 855 Sábal P. S. 1985 Báctris W. 753 Cálamus W. 2007 Caryóta W. 2008 Nípa Th. 2079 Borássus W. 2009 Aréca W. 2080 Mauritia W. 2049 Phœ'nix W. 2109 Latánia J. 2077 Eláis W. 2153 Rhápis W. 2078 Chamædórea W. 2154 Chamæ'rops W.
SECTION III. STAMENS HYPOGYNOUS.