Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/26

 16 PALLIUM PALM Superior to the Pacific. His report was pub- lished among the parliamentary papers of 1861. PALLIUM, or Palla, an outer garment worn by both sexes among the Greeks, and occasion- ally among the Romans. It was a square or rectangular piece of woollen, linen, or cotton cloth, varying in color, texture, and ornament, and was sometimes merely wrapped around the body without regard to grace or appear- ance, sometimes fastened over the right shoul- der with a brooch, and sometimes thrown over the left shoulder, brought across the back and under the right arm, and then thrown over the left shoulder again. The women's pallium was generally of a finer texture and more elaborate ornamentation than the men's; and the fops of ancient Athens used not unfrequently to array themselves in this effeminate costume. The pallium among the Greeks supplied the place of the toga among the Romans. Pal- lium is also the name of an ecclesiastical orna- ment in the Roman Catholic church, reserved to archbishops who are not merely titular, and to bishops who are the occupants of priv- ileged sees, or on whom it is bestowed as a mark of special distinction. It was originally a sort of mantle or cape, but at present it con- sists only of a white woollen band about 2 in. wide, which is worn around the shoulders and crossed in front. Crosses are worked upon it in black, and ornaments are attached to the ends. It is fastened by golden pins. The pal- lium is made at Rome of the wool shorn from two lambs which the sisterhood of Santa Agnese on the via Nomentana offer every year on their patronal feast while the Agnus Dei is sung at mass. It is sent by the pope to every newly appointed archbishop, and is considered the distinctive badge of the metropolitan dig- nity. The origin of the pallium as a badge of episcopal preeminence is obscure. The first ecclesiastical document relating to it is a con- stitution of Pope St. Mark (who died in 336) prescribing that the bishop of Ostia should wear the pallium when officiating as conse- crator of a pope elect. The most ancient ex- ample of the pallium in monumental history is from the sarcophagus of St. Celsus, arch- bishop of Milan, who died in the 4th century; his pallium bears a single cross. A mosaic of the 8th century represents St. Peter bestowing on Pope St. Leo a pallium with one cross, and differing but little in shape from that in use at present. At the council of Lateran in 1215 Pope Innocent III. decreed it to be a mark of the plenitude of the apostolic power, and that no archbishop should exercise his functions until he had received it. PALM (Lat. palma, the ancient name of the date tree), the general name of plants of the palmacea or palm family. The species of palms number nearly 1,000, which are distributed in more than 50 genera ; as in other large fami- lies, there is great diversity among the gene- ra, and these are grouped according to their affinities in five well marked tribes or sub- families. The characters of the family in which all agree may be briefly stated. The palms are all perennial, woody, endogenous (monocoty- ledonous); the primary root of the seedling Inflorescence and Fruit of Palm. 1. Spathe and portion of spadix of Chamaerops. 2. Staminate flower. 3. Pistil- late flower. 4. Fruit. 5. Seed. 6. Seed cut vertically. decays early, but secondary roots appear at the base of the stem, which form a compact mass, and sometimes so raise up the trunk that it seems to be supported upon props, as in areca lutescens, p. IT. The stem, sometimes a mere rootstock not rising above the surface of the earth, is sometimes short and swollen, but more frequently tall, slender, and erect, in some spe- cies reaching the height of 250 ft.; in the cane palms the stem is so weak and slender that it climbs trees and is over 300 ft. long; while a diameter of 3 ft. is reached by some, others are not larger than a small reed; the stem is generally simple, but in a few genera is branched in a forked manner ; in two or three genera the stem is swollen near the middle. As in oth- er endogens, a cross section of a palm stem shows no con- centric circles of wood, but a mass of pith through which bundles of woody fibre are irregular- ly distributed, and these are more numerous toward the circumference than in the cen- tre ; as new leaves are formed these wofldy bundles ex- tend from them down through the central portion of the stem, and finally curving out- ward lose themselves in the circumference. They have no proper bark, but the exterior Palm Stem in Section.