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Show ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 317 as a reed (a in Piritu, Kunthia montana, and the Mexican Corypha nana) ; sometimes swelling towards the base (as in Cocos) ; sometimes smooth, and sometimes scaly (Palma de covija o de sombrero, in the Llano ) ; sometimes armed with spines (as Corozo de Cumana and Macanilla de Caripe), the long spines being distributed with much regularity in concentric rings." " Characteristic differences are also furnished in some species by roots which, springing from the stem at about a foot or a foot and a half above the ground, either raise the stem as it were upon a scaffolding, or surround it with thick buttresses. I have seen Viverras, and even very small monkeys, pass underneath this kind of scaffolding formed by the roots of the Caryota. Often the shaft or stem is swollen only in the middle, being more slender above and below, as in the Palma Real of the Island of Cuba. The leaves are sometimes of a dark and shining green (as in the Mauritia and the Cocoa-nut palm); sometimes of a silvery white on the under side (as in the slender Fan-palm, Corypha miraguama, which we found in the harbor of Trinidad de Cuba). Sometimes the middle of the fan or palmate leaf is ornamented with concentric yellowish or bluish stripes like a peacock's tail; as in the thorny Mauritia which Bonpland discovered on the banks of the Rio Atabapo." "The direction of the leaves is a character not less important than their form and color. The leaflets (foliola) are sometimes arranged like the teeth of a comb, set on in the same plane, and close to each other, and having a very rigid parenchyma (as in Cocos, and in Phrenix, the genus to which the Date belongs); whence the fine play of light from the sunbeams falling on the upper surface of the leaves (which is of a fresher verdure in Cocos, and of a more dead and ashy hue in the Date-palm); sometimes the leaves are flag-like, of a thinner and more flexible textme, and curl towards the extremities (as in Jagua, Palma Real del Sinu, Palma Real de Cuba, and in Piritu dell' Orinoco). The peculiarly majestic character of palms is given not only by their lofty stems, but also in a very high degree by the direction of their leaves. It is part of the beauty of any particular species of palms that its leaves should possess this aspiring character; and not only in youth, as is the case in the Date-palm, but also throughout the duration of the life of the tree. 27* |