Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/27

 PALM 17 portion or rind, by pressure of the interior growth and by an induration which takes place, similar to that in the heart wood of ex- ogenous stems, becomes excessively hard, and in some cases almost impossible to cut with an axe. The leaves are from a terminal bud, the petioles sheathing the stem ; after the de- cay of the leaf the sheathing portion of the leaf stalk remains, usually as a fibrous net- work ; the blade of the leaf, often very large, is fan-shaped or pinnately divided, and presents a great variety of elegant forms ; the margins, often depressed, are frequently split into slen- der filaments. The flowers are very small, rarely perfect, but usually monoecious or dioe- cious, and in axillary clusters upon a simple or branched spadix, surrounded by a herba- ceous or almost woody spathe. The flowers of chamcerops excelm are used to illustrate the character of the inflorescence ; in this the spathe or sheath to the flowers is small and sheath-like, but in some it is several feet long and woody; within the sheath is shown a por- tion of the branching spadix or stalk to the flower cluster, with some flowers attached, while separate flowers of both sexes are given at one side. The number of flowers produced by the palms is astonishing ; 12,000 have been counted in a spathe of the date, and 207,000 in one of a species of Alfonsia. The perianth is double, and consists of a calyx of three distinct or coherent sepals, within which is a similar corolla ; stamens three to six ; ovary of one to three more or less united carpels, each with a solitary ovule, and becoming in fruit a berry or drupe, often with a fibrous covering ; seed with a cartilaginous or horny albumen. Palms are mostly tropical, a few being found in the hot- ter portions of the temperate zones; lat. 44 N". and 38 S. are the extreme distances from the equator at which they have been found, and very few grow in these localities; one species is a native of southern Europe, and four are na- tives of our southern states. (See PALMETTO.) Great heat and abundant moisture are essential to their growth, and hence they are rare in the arid regions of the tropics; they are not numer- ous in Africa, but are abundant in India and tropical America. The palms rank in usefulness next to the grasses, there being scarcely a spe- cies which cannot be utilized in some manner : the wood serves to build houses, and the leaves to thatch them ; almost all yield useful fibres, which may be used as textile material or for paper ; mats, baskets, and numerous utensils are made from the leaves; besides their various edible fruits, they yield food in the form of starch, sugar, and oil, and in their undeveloped leaves ; several produce alcoholic drinks by the fermentation of their sap. In order to notice the many useful products of the family, it will be convenient to group the genera in their sev- eral tribes or subfamilies. 1. The areca tribe (arecinece) consists of trees or shrubs with pin- nate or bi-pinnate leaves, the pinnules with curved margins ; the spathe, which is seldom wanting, is generally of several leaves, rarely monophyllous ; the deeply three-lobed fruit is a berry or a drupe. The betel-nut palm (areca catechu), also known as areca-nut and Fruit and Nut of Betel Palm, entire and in section. catechu palm, and called pinang by the Malays, is a large tree growing in India, Ceylon, and the Moluccas; it has very fragrant flowers, which are used in Borneo for decorating, and a drupe-like nut about the size of a hen's egg, with a fibrous rind half an inch thick ; the seed is about the size of a nutmeg, which it also resembles in the mottled appearance of its albumen ; the nuts are very astringent ; by boiling in water and evaporating the decoction a form of catechu is obtained ; the nuts yield a charcoal which is sometimes used for tooth powder, but it differs from other coal only in Areca lutescens. A young 1 specimen in pot, to show the ornamental character of small palms. its greater hardness ; the principal use of the nuts is as a masticatory. (See BETEL.) The cabbage palm of the West Indies, oreodooca oleracea. is so called because the terminal