Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/390

376 wanted. The thick, fibrous envelope of the nut has been much used of late years in Europe. After being macerated, the fibers, called coir or cair, are combed. Ropes made of them are elastic and hardy against decay. They are worked into articles of esparto and brushes, and we tread them under feet in cocoa mattings. From the hard shell of the nut are made cups and dishes, which are susceptible of a ready polish, and can be carved. The leaves can be utilized, like those of other palms, but lack the suppleness of the leaves of other kinds.

Not all the species of Cocos bear fruits as large as those of nucifera. The small species also contribute to the maintenance of man and industries. A considerable trade is carried on in the little cocoa of Central America (Cocos lapidea), which is sometimes called the "convicts' cocoa," because prisoners polish or carve the hard egg-sized shells of the nuts, and make of them balls for mending stockings, bead-boxes, tobacco-boxes, and toys to sell to visitors. The same shell is in favor for making fancy buttons.

Some other species of palm bear eatable or oleaginous fruits. The reddish-yellow, acorn-shaped fruits of the Paripon of Guiana (Guilielma speciosa) is highly esteemed. It is cultivated under different names in all the Central American countries. Beverages, and often alcohol, are obtained from the fruits of several other species. The Avoira, or oil palm, of Africa (Elæis guineensis) is, after the cocoa, the most important of the palms as a commercial object. The numerous fruit-clusters of this palm, twice as large as a man's head, contain many fruits of the size of a walnut, the external envelope of which is charged with "palm-oil," a fat that is much used in soap-making, and is esteemed by Africans as an aliment. The kernel of the fruit affords an oil superior in limpidity and savor to that of the pericarp. The African product of avoira fruits is estimated at one hundred thousand tons a year. The manufacture of textile fabrics from palm-leaves has not been fully experimented upon. A few Central American palms and the oil-palm afford a strong and very fine fiber.

Horticulturists have made much of palm-trees, and they are now abundant in the flower markets. The Bourbon palm (Livistonia sinensis); date palms of several species; dwarf palms and