Note 85 — IDEAS FOR A PHYSIOGNOMY OF PLANTS.

p. 223—“Palms.”

It is remarkable, that of this majestic form of plants—the Palms—some of which rise to more than twice the height of the Royal Palace at Berlin, and which the Indian, Amarasinha, has very characteristically called “kings among grasses,”—only fifteen species had been described up to the time of the death of Linnæus. The Peruvian travellers, Ruiz and Pavon, added only eight; whilst Bonpland and myself, traversing a greater extent of country, from 12° south lat. to 21° north lat., described twenty new species, and distinguished as many more which we named, without however being able to procure their blossoms in a perfect state.^[NV] At present (forty-four years after my return from Mexico) more than 440 species of palms, from both continents, have already been scientifically described, including the East Indian species arranged by Griffith. The “Enumeratio Plantarum” of my friend Kunth, which appeared in 1841, contains no fewer than 356 species.

The very few palms belonging, like our Coniferæ, Quercineæ, and Betulineæ, to social plants, are the Mauritian Palm (Mauritia flexuosa), and the two species of Chamærops, of which the Chamærops humilis covers whole tracts of land at the estuary of the Ebro and in Valencia, while the other, Chamærops Mocini, which we discovered on the Mexican shore of the Pacific, is entirely without prickles. In the same manner as there are some species of palms, including Cocos and Chamærops, which are peculiar to sea-coasts, so also is there a certain group of Alpine palms belonging to the region 297of the tropics, which, if I mistake not, was wholly unknown before my South American journey. Almost all these species of the palm family grow in plains and in a mean temperature of 81°.5 and 86° Fahr., seldom advancing higher up the sides of the Andes than to 1900 feet. The beautiful wax palm (Ceroxylon andicola), the Palmetto of Azufral at the Pass of Quindiu, (Oreodoxa frigida), and the reed-like Kunthia montana (Caña de la Vibora) of Pasto, all flourish at elevations varying from 6400 to 9600 feet above the level of the sea, where the thermometer frequently sinks in the night to 42°.8 and 45°.5 Fahr., and the mean temperature is scarcely 57° Fahr. These Alpine palms are interspersed with nut-trees, yew-leaved species of Podocarpus, and oaks, (Quercus granatensis). I have determined, by accurate barometric measurements, the upper and lower limits of the wax palm. We began to observe it first on the eastern declivity of the Cordilleras of Quindiu, at an elevation of 7929 feet, from whence it ascended to the Garita del Paramo, and Los Volcancitos, as high as about 9700 feet. The distinguished botanist, Don José Caldas, who was long our companion in the mountains of New Granada, and who fell a victim to Spanish party hatred, found, many years after my departure from the country, three species of palms in the Paramo de Guanacos, in the immediate vicinity of the limit of perpetual snow, and therefore, probably at an elevation of nearly 14,000 feet.^[NW] Even beyond the tropical region (in lat. 28°), Chamærops Martiana^[NX] rises on the advanced spurs of the Himalaya range to a height of 5000 feet.

When we consider the extreme geographical and, consequently, also the climatic limits of palms at spots which are but little elevated above the level of the sea, we find that some forms (the Date Palm, Chamærops humilis, Ch. palmetto, and Areca sapida of New Zealand,) advance far within the temperate zone of both hemispheres, to districts where the mean annual temperature scarcely reaches from 57° to 60° Fahr. If we form a progressive scale of cultivated plants in accordance with the different degrees of heat they require, and begin with the maximum, we have Cacao, Indigo, Bananas, Coffee, Cotton, Date Palms, Orange and Lemon trees, Olives, Spanish 298Chesnuts, and Vines. In Europe, Date Palms, together with Chamærops humilis, grow in the parallels of 43½° and 44°, as, for instance, on the Genoese Rivera del Ponente, near Bordighera, between Monaco and San Stefano, where there is a palm grove, numbering more than 4000 trees; also in Dalmatia, near Spalatro. It is remarkable that the Chamærops humilis is of frequent occurrence in the neighbourhood of Nice and in Sardinia, whilst it is not found in the Island of Corsica, lying between the two. In the New Continent, the Chamærops palmetto, which is sometimes more than 40 feet high, does not advance further north than 34°; a circumstance that may be explained by the inflection of the isothermal lines. In the southern hemisphere, Robert Brown^[NY] found that palms, of which there are only very few (six or seven) species, advance as far as 34° in New Holland; while Sir Joseph Banks saw an Areca, in New Zealand, as far as 38°. Africa, which, contrary to the ancient and still extensively diffused opinion, is poor in species of palms, exhibits only one palm (Hyphæne coriacea) which advances south of the equator, only as far as Port Natal, in 30° lat. The continent of South America presents almost the same limits. East of the chain of the Andes, in the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, and in the Cis-Plata province, palms extend, according to Auguste de St.-Hilaire,^[NZ] as far as 34° and 35°. The Coco de Chile, (our Jubæa spectabilis?), the only species of palm indigenous in Chili, advances on the western side of the chain of the Andes, according to Claude Gay,^[OA] to an equal latitude, viz., to the Rio Maule.

I will here subjoin the aphoristic observations which, in March, 1801, I noted down while on board ship, at the moment we were leaving the palm region surrounding the mouth of the Rio Sinu, west of Darien, and were setting sail for Carthagena de Indias.

“In the space of two years, we have seen as many as 27 different species of palms in South America. How many then must have been observed by Commerson, Thunberg, Banks, Solander, the two Forsters, Adanson, and Sonnerat, on their extensive travels! Yet, at the moment I am writing, our vegetable systems recognise scarcely more than from 299fourteen to eighteen methodically described species of palms. The difficulties of reaching and procuring the blossoms of palms are, in fact, greater than can well be conceived; and, in our own case, we were made peculiarly sensible of this in consequence of our having directed our attention especially to palms, grasses, cyperaceæ, juncaceæ, cryptogamia, and numerous other subjects hitherto much neglected. Most of the palms flower only once a year, and this period near the equator is generally about the months of January and February. How few travellers are likely to be in the region of palms precisely during this season! The period of blossoming of particular trees is often limited to a few days, and the traveller commonly finds, on his arrival in the region of palms, that the blossoms have passed away, and that the trees present only fructified ovaries and no male flowers. In an area of 32,000 square miles, there are often not more than three or four species of palms to be found. Who can possibly, during the brief period of flowering, simultaneously visit the various palm regions near the Missions on the Rio Caroni, in the Morichales at the mouth of the Orinoco, in the valley of Caura and Erevato, on the banks of the Atabapo and the Rio Negro, and on the declivity of the Duida? There is, moreover, great difficulty when the trees grow in thick woods or on swampy shores (as at the Temi and Tuamini), in reaching the blossoms, which are often suspended from stems formidably armed with huge thorns, and rising to a height of between 60 and 70 feet. They who contemplate distant travels from Europe for the purpose of investigating subjects of natural history, picture to themselves visions of efficient shears and curved knives attached to poles, ready for securing anything that comes in their way; and of boys who, obedient to their mandates, are prepared, with a cord attached to their feet, to climb the loftiest trees! Unfortunately, scarcely any of these visions are ever realised; while the flowers are almost unattainable, owing to the great height at which they grow. In the missionary settlements of the river net-work of Guiana, the stranger finds himself amongst Indians, who, rendered rich and independent by their apathy, their poverty, and their barbarism, cannot be induced either by money or presents to deviate three steps from the regular path, supposing one to exist. This stubborn indifference 300of the natives provokes the European so much the more, from his being continually a witness of the inconceivable agility with which they will climb any height when prompted by their own inclination, as, for instance, in the pursuit of a parrot, an iguana, or a monkey, which, wounded by their arrows, saves itself from falling by its prehensile tail. In the month of January the stems of the Palma Real, our Oreodoxa Regia, were covered with snow-white blossoms, in all the most frequented thoroughfares of the Havannah, and in the immediate vicinity of the city; but, although we offered, for several days running, a couple of piastres for a single spadix of the hermaphrodite blossoms to every negro boy we met in the streets of Regia and Guanavacoa, it was in vain, for, in the tropics, no free man will ever undertake any labour attended by fatigue unless he is compelled to do so by imperative necessity! The botanists and painters of the Royal Spanish Commission of Natural History under Count Don Jaruco y Mopox (Estevez, Boldo, Guio, Echeveria), confessed to us that, for several years, they had been unable to examine these blossoms, owing to the absolute impossibility of obtaining them.

“After this statement of the difficulties attending their acquisition, the fact of our being only able, in the course of two years, systematically to describe twelve species of palms, although we had discovered twenty species, may be understood; but I confess it would hardly have been credible to me before I left Europe. How interesting a work might be written on palms by a traveller, who could exclusively devote himself to the delineation, in their natural size, of the spathe, spadix, inflorescence and fruits!” (Thus I wrote many years before the Brazilian travels of Martius and Spix, and the appearance of the admirable work on Palms by the former.)

“There is much sameness in the form of the leaves, which are either feathery (pinnata), or fan-like (palmo-digitata); the leaf-stalk (petiolus) is either without thorns or is sharply serrated (serrato-spinosus). The leaf-form of Caryota urens and Martinezia caryotifolia, which we saw on the banks of the Orinoco and the Atabapo, and subsequently in the Andes, at the pass of Quindiu, as high as 3200 feet above the level of the sea, is almost as peculiar among palms as is the leaf-form of the Gingko among trees. The habitus and physiognomy of 301palms are expressive of a grandeur of character which it is difficult to describe in words. The stem (caudex) is simple, and very rarely divided into branches after the manner of the Dracæna, as in Cucifera thebaica (the Doom Palm), and in Hyphæne coriacea. It is sometimes disproportionately thick, as in Corozo del Sinu, our Alfonsia oleifera; of a reed-like feebleness, as in Piritu, (Kunthia montana), and the Mexican Corypha nana; of a somewhat fork-like and protuberant form towards the lower part, as in Cocos; sometimes smooth and sometimes scaly, as in the Palma de Covijaó de Sombrero, in the Llanos; or, lastly, prickly, as in Corozo de Cumana and Macanilla de Caripe, having the thorns very regularly arranged in concentric rings.

“Characteristic differences also manifest themselves in the roots, which, in some cases, project about a foot or a foot and a half from the ground, raising the stem on a scaffolding, as it were, or coiled round it in a padded-like roll. I have seen viverras and even very small monkeys pass under the scaffolding formed by the roots of the Caryota. Occasionally the stem is swollen only in the middle, being smaller above and below, as in the Palma Real of the island of Cuba. The green of the leaves is either dark and shining, as in Mauritia Cocos, or of a silvery white on the under side, as in the slender fan-palm, Corypha Miraguama, which we saw in the harbour of Trinidad de Cuba. Sometimes the middle of the fan-like leaf is adorned with concentric yellow and blue stripes, in the manner of a peacock’s tail, as in the prickly Mauritia, which Bonpland discovered on the Rio Atabapo.

“The direction of the leaves is a no less important characteristic than their form and colour. The leaflets (foliola) are either ranged in a comb-like manner close to one another, with a stiff parenchyma (as in Cocos Phœnix), to which they owe the beautiful reflections of solar light that play over the surface of the leaves, which shine with a brilliant verdure in Cocos, and with a fainter and ashy-coloured hue in the date-palm; or sometimes the foliage assumes a reed-like appearance, having a thinner and more flexible texture, and being curled near the extremity (as in Jagua, Palma Real del Sinu, Palma Real de Cuba, and Piritu del Orinoco). This direction of the leaves, together with the lofty stem, gives to the palms their character of high majesty. It is a characteristic of the 302physiognomical beauty of the palm that its leaves are directed aspiringly upwards throughout the whole period of its duration, (and not only in the youth of the tree, as is the case with the Date-Palm, which is the only one introduced into Europe.) The more acute the angle made by the leaves with the upper part of the stem (that is, the nearer they approach the perpendicular,) the grander and nobler is the form of the tree. How different is the aspect of the pendent leaves of the Palma de Covija del Orinoco y de los Llanos de Calabozo (Corypha tectorum), from the more horizontal leaves of the Date and Cocoa-nut palms, and the lofty heavenward-pointing branches of the Jagua, the Cucurito, and Pirijao.

“Nature seems to have accumulated all the beauties of form in the Jagua palm, which, intermingled with the Cucurito or Vadgihai, whose stem rises to a height of 80 or even more than 100 feet, crowns the granite rocks at the cataracts of Atures and Maypures, and which we also occasionally saw on the lonely banks of the Cassiquiare. Their smooth and slender stems rise to a height of from 64 to 75 feet, projecting like a colonnade above the dense mass of the surrounding foliage. These aërial summits present a marked and beautiful contrast with the thickly-leaved species of Ceiba, and with the forest of Laurineæ, Calophyllum, and the different species of Amyris which surround them. Their leaves, which seldom exceed seven or eight in number, incline vertically upwards to a height of 16 or 17 feet, and are curled at the extremities in a kind of feathery tuft. The parenchyma of the leaf is of a thin grass-like texture, causing the leaflets to wave with graceful lightness on the gently oscillating leaf-stalk. The floral buds burst forth, in all species of palms, from the stem immediately beneath the leaves; and the mode in which this takers place modifies their physiognomical character. Thus in some, as in Corozo del Sinu, the sheath is perfectly erect, and the fruit rises like a thyrsus, resembling the fruits of the Bromelia. In the greater number, the sheaths, which in some species are smooth, and in others very prickly and rough, incline downwards. In some, again, the male blossoms are of a dazzling white, and it may then be seen shining from a great distance; but in most species of palms they are yellow, closely compressed, and of an almost faded appearance, even when they first burst from the spathe.

303“In palms with feathery leaves the leaf-stalks either burst from the dry, rough, ligneous portion of the stem (as in Cocos, Phœnix, Palma Real del Sinu), or there rises in the rough part of the stem a grass-green, smooth, and thinner shaft, like one column above another, from which the leaf-stalk springs, as in Palma Real de la Havana, Oreodoxa regia, which excited the admiration of Columbus. In the fan-palms (foliis palmatis), the leafy crown often rests on a layer of dry leaves, which imparts to the tree a character of melancholy solemnity and grandeur (as in Moriche, Palma de sombrero de la Havana). In some umbrella-palms, the crown consists of a very few scattered leaves, raised on slender stalks (as in Miraguama).

“The form and colour of the fruit also present more variety than is generally supposed to be the case in Europe. Mauritia flexuosa has egg-shaped fruits, whose smooth, brown, and scaly surface gives them the appearance of young pine cones. How great is the difference between the large triangular cocoa-nut, the berry of the date, and the small stone-fruit of the Corozo! But of all the fruits of the palm, none can be compared for beauty with those of the Pirijao (Pihiguao) of San Fernando de Atabapo and of San Balthasar. They are oval, and of a golden colour (one-half being of a purplish red); are mealy, without seed, two or three inches in thickness, and hang in clusters like grapes from the summits of their majestic palm-trunks.” I have already spoken in the earlier part of this work of these beautiful fruits, of which there are seventy or eighty clustered together in one bunch, and which can be prepared in a variety of ways like bananas and potatoes.

The spathe enclosing the blossom bursts suddenly open in some species of palms, with an audible report. Richard Schomburgk has like myself observed this phenomenon^[OB] in the flowering of the Oreodoxa oleracea. This first opening of the blossoms of the palm accompanied with noise, reminds us of Pindar’s Dithyrambus on Spring, and of the moment when in the Argive Nemæa, “the first opening shoot of the date-palm announces the coming of balmy spring.”^[OC]

Palms, bananas, and arborescent ferns constitute three forms of especial beauty peculiar to every portion of the 304tropical zone; wherever heat and moisture co-operate, vegetation is most exuberant and vegetable forms present the greatest diversity. Hence South America is the most beautiful portion of the palm world. In Asia the palm form is rare, in consequence perhaps of a considerable part of the Indian continent beneath the equator having been destroyed and covered by the ocean in some earlier revolution of our planet. We know scarcely anything of the African palms between the Bay of Benin and the coast of Ajan; and we are, generally speaking, as already observed, acquainted with only a very small number of African palm-forms.

Palms, next to Coniferæ, and some species of Eucalyptus belonging to the family of the Myrtaceæ, afford examples of the loftiest growth. Stems of the Cabbage-palm (Areca oleracea) have been seen from 160 to 170 feet in height.^[OD] The Wax-palm, our Ceroxylon andicola, which we discovered in the Montaña de Quindiu on the side of the Andes, between Ibague and Carthago, attains the enormous height of 180 to 190 feet. I was able to make an accurate measurement of the trunks of some of these trees, which had been felled in the woods. Next to the Wax-palm, the Oreodoxa Sancona, which we found in flower in the valley of Cauca, and which affords a very hard and admirable wood for building, appeared to me to be the highest of all American palms. The fact, that notwithstanding the enormous mass of fruit yielded by some single palms, the number of individuals of each species growing wild is not very considerable, can only be explained by the frequent abortive development of the fruit, and by the voracity of the enemies by whom they are assailed from all classes of animals. In the basin of the Orinoco, however, whole tribes find the means of subsistence for many months together in the fruit of the palm. “In palmetis, Pihiguao consitis, singuli trunci quotannis fere 400 fructus ferunt pomiformes, tritumque est verbum inter Fratres S. Francisci, ad ripas Orinoci et Guainiæ degentes, mire pinguescere Indorum corpora, quoties uberem Palmæ fructum fundant.”^[OE]