PALMS, Palmce or Palmacece, a natural order of endogenous plants, not excelled in importance by any order in the vegetable kingdom except grasses. They are generally tall and slender trees, often of gigantic height, without a branch, and bearing at the summit a magnificent and graceful crown of very large leaves. The stem is sometimes, however, of humble growth, and more rarely it is thick in proportion to its height; some times, but rarely, it is branched. as in the doom (q.v.) palm; and sometimes, as in rattans (q.v.), it is flexible, and seeks support from trees and bushes, over which it climbs in jungles and dense forests, clinging to them by means of hooked spines. Some of the species with flexible stem attain a prodigious length, ascending to the -tops of the high est trees, and falling down again. Rumphins asserts that they are sometimes 1200, or even 1800 ft. long. Whatever the form or magnitude-of the stem of a palm, it is always woody, and the root is alWays fibrous. It is only towards its circumference, however, that the stein is bud, and there in many species it is extremely hard; but the center is soft, often containing, when young. .a great quantity of starch (sago), and sometimes filled, when old, with a mass of fibers which can be separated without difficulty. Con cerning the structure of the stein, see ENDOGENOUS PLANTS. The stem is generally marked externally with rings or scars, where former leaves have been attached; some times it is rough with the remaining bases of the leaves, and part of it is sometimes covered with their fibrous appendages. No other plants have leaves so large as many of the palms; the hugest of all are those of some of the fan-leaved palms, but there are palms with pinnate leaves 50 ft. long and S ft. broad, and undivided leaves are to be seen 30 ft. long by 4 or 5 ft. broad. There are, however, also small palms, and palms with flexible stems, which have small leaves. The number of t he large leaves which form the crown of even the most magnificent palm is never great. Whatever the size or form of the leaves, they are always stalked, the stalk being often in dimensions equal to a large bough of a great oak or other such tree. The leaves are commonly pinnated. the num her of pinnules or leaflets being often very great; but about one-sixth of the whole num ber of known species of palms have fan-shaped leaves, and a few species have undivided leaves. The leaves are in all cases persistent, only falling off in succession as the palm advances in growth, and new ones are formed at the summit. The flowers are sometimes hermaphrodite, sometimes unisexual; the same tree baying sometimes male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers, whilst other species arc monmeious and others dimeions. The
perianth has six divisions, three outer and three inner; there are generally six, three stamens; the ovary is composed of three carpels, distinct or united, each with one cell containing one ovule. The flowers are small, but are often produced in dense masses óf very striking appearance. Humboldt reckons the number of flowers on a single palm (illfonsia amygdalina) as about 600,000, and every bunch of the Seje palm of the Orinoco consists of about 8,000 fruits. The flowers are produced on Sealy spadices, often much branched. and inclosed, before expanding, in leathery or woody spathes, often very large, and sometimes opening by bursting with a loud explosion. The flowers of some palms emit a very powerful odor, which attracts multitudes of insects. The fruit is sometimes a kind of berry, sometimes a drupe, either with a fleshy or fibrous covering; and sometimes contains a very hard and bony nut. The fruit is sometimes only of the size of a pea or a cherry; sometimes, notwithstanding the smallness of the flowers, it is of very large size, of which the cocoa-nut is a familiar example.
Palms are mostly natives of tropical countries, being round almost everywhere within the tropics, and forming„ perhaps, the most striking characteristic of tropical tation. The tropical parts of America, however, particularly abound in them, producing a far greater number of species than any other part of the world. A few species are found in temperate regions; one species only, chamarops kundlis, being a native of Europe, and extending, as far n. as lit. 44°, whilst the northern limit of palms in Asia is about lat. 34°, and in North America, lat. 35°. In South America, the southern limit of palms is 36°; in Australia, it is lat. 35'; in Africa, no native species is found further s, than lat. 30°; but in New Zealand, one species extends as far s. as hit. 3S° 22'. Some of the species, however, which arc found in tropical America grow in mountain regions bor dering upon the limits of perpetual snow. Some palms have very narrow geograi?hical limits; the cocoa-nut palm is by far the most extensively distributed species. home, like the cocoa-nut, grow in maritime, others in inland districts. Some grow on dry and sandy ground. others in the richest alluvial soil, and sonic in swampy situations; some in open districts, others in dense forests. Some species are generally found singly, some in groups; some even cover tracts of country in which no other tree appears.