THE PALM FAmrLY is a large group of tropical flowering plants, related to lilies on one side and grasses on the other. Like both of these, palms have but one cotyledon (seed leaf) in the embryo, and the stem is composed of a hardened outer layer within which is a mass of felt-like tissue in which longi tudinal bundles of tough wood cells are irregularly distributed.
Growth is internal, about these bundles as centres — not ex ternal, from a cambium. The parts of the flowers are regularly in 3's, as in the lilies. The leaves are parallel-veined, and they sheathe the stem, as in the grasses. They are fan shaped or feather shaped.