The Chaniairops Khassiana, fan-palm, the Priklia of the Khassya, grows on the cliffs near Mainloo, on the Khassya hills. It may be seen on looking over the edge of the plateau, its long carved trunk rising out of the naked rocks, but its site is generally inaccessible ; while near it grows the Saxifraga ciliaria of English gardens, a common plant in the N.W. Himalaya, but extremely scarce in Sikkim and the Khaasys mountains. This species of Chamterops is very closely allied to, if not identical with, Ch. Martians of Nepal, which ascends to 8000 feet in the Western Himalaya, where it is annually covered with snow; it is not found In Sikkim; but an allied species occurs iu Afghanistan, called Ch. Ritchieana. There are upwards". of twenty kinds of palm in the Khassya district, including Chammrops, three species of Areca, two of Walliehia, Arenga, Caryota, three of Phoenix, Plectocomia, Licuala, and many species of Calamus.
The betel - nut palm, Areca catechu, grows throughout the East Indies, and produces the betel-nut, which the people largely use, along with the betel leaf, as a masticatory, and its nut also yields a kind of catechu, and in the mountains of Malabar the poorer people use the nut of the Areca Dieksonii as a substitute. The Arenga, the gomuti palm of the Eastern Archipelago, yields sago, sugar, palm wine, and black horsehair-like fibres, from which cordage and cables are made. A single tree yields about 150 lbs. of good sago meal, and its sap is largely used as a palm wine, or is boiled down into a thick syrup, and allowed to concrete. Horsehair-like fibres sur round the petioles of its leaves. The palm wine from the Caryota wrens of the Peninsula of India and the Moluccas is a valuable product. It is fermented and drunk as an intoxicating beverage, or is distilled to obtain a spirituous liquid. The best trees, during the hot season, will yield 100 pints of sap in 24 hours. The pith of the trunk in old caryota trees is made into sago, and baked as bread, or boiled in the form of a thick gruel. The different species of Calamus furnish'the canes and rattans of commerce. They are largely used in the East Indies as the linings of bedsteads and chairs, as screens, and to form ladders and cables. Sagus Bumph., of the Eastern Archipelago, and S. farinifera, Gcertn., of the Malay Peninsula and the Archipelago, both yield the sago of commerce. The people of the Moluccas live to a large extent on the pith of the latter tree. The leaves of the tali tree of Ceylon and the Moluccas, the talipat or great fan-palm of Ceylon, the Corypha umbraculifera, are of great value as a thatching material ; and the leaves of the tara-palm of Bengal, the Corypha taliera, and those of the palmyra, are used as book leaves to write on, with iron styles, and they are also used .to tie the rafters of their houses. The species of the date-palms, the genus Phoenix, yield several useful products. P. sylvestris; the wild date-palm, grows abundantly throughout British India. Its fruit is of no value, but its juice is largely used as a palm wine, and is boiled into sugar, which is to some extent exported to other countries. This wild date tree is met with in almost every part of British India. It flourishes in the alluvial soils which cover the south-eastern portion of Bengal proper, excepting only such tracts as suffer entire submersion annually from the overflow of their rivers, as is common in portions of the Dacca, Mymensing, and Sunder bun districts. The extent of country best suited for its growth is an area stretching east and west about 200 miles, and north and south about 100 miles, and comprehending by a rough estimate about 9000 square miles within an irregular trian gular space. When not stunted in its growth by
the extraction of its juice or sap for toddy drink ing or for sugar, it is a very handsome tree, rising in Bengal from 30 'to 40 feet in height, with a dense crown of leaves spreading in a hemispherical forin from its summit: The'se leaves are from 10 to 15 feet long, and composed of numerous leaflets or pinnules about 18 inches long. The trunk is rough, from the adherence of the bases of the falling leaves ; this serves to distinguish it at a glance from the smooth-trunked cocoanut palm, which in its leaves only it re sembles. The fruit consists more of seed than of pulp, and altogether is only about one-fourth the size of that of the true date of Arabia. For its palm wine, the stem is notched and sloped, and a spout made of its frond. The toddy of the cocoanut, the palmyra, and the gomuti palms, is obtained from the spathe. In the gomuti, palmyra, and cocoanut, the spathe is cut across, and the juice flows into a pot.
The people of Nejid believe that the more their date-palms, Phoenix dactylifera, are watered, the more syrup will the fruit produce ; they there fore inundate the ground as often as possible. At El Jauf, where the date is peculiarly good, the trees are watered regularly every third or fourth day. The stem of Phoenix farinifera contains fecula, which is used as food in times of scarcity, its leaflets are wrought into mats, and the common petioles are split into three or four, and used to make baskets. Its fruit is edible. Walking-sticks are made of the trunks of the P. paludosa, and the trunks are used as rafters and the leaves for thatch.
The Stevensonia and Verschaffeltia of the Sey chelles are eminently suited for decorative pur poses. The former is spoken of as Roi de la Famille, the latter as its worthy rival, from its grand shape and its rich foliage.
The Pritchardia Pacifica palm of Polynesia is the exclusive property of the aristocracy, and not allowed to be used for common purposes.
The Chinese make overcoats of the leaves and fibres of Chammrops excelsa, Thunberg. In the western hemisphere, the Chili palm, Jubrea specta bilis, Darwin, is felled to obtain its syrup - like sap, called palm honey, of which a good tree will yield ninety gallons. The costly Panama hats are made of the leaves of the Carludovica palmata. A useful oil is obtained from the hard-shelled nuts of the Acrocomia selerocarpa of the West Indies and Brazil. The vegetable ivory nuts of the Phytelephas macrocarpa are extensively used. Species of the genus Astroearyon of the Upper Amazon yield several commercial products ; the kernel of A. mururnura nearly approaches to vegetable ivory in hardness ; the stony seeds of A. tucuma are turned into rings; and the beauti ful hamMocks of the Upper Amazon are made of tucum thread, prepared from the A. 'vulgare. The detailed account of the more important of these palms will be found under their respective names in the alphabetical arrangement.—Burton's Mecca, ii. p. 175 ; Powell's Handbook, i. p. 512; Hartwig; Griffith's Palms of British East India ; Roxb. Fl. Indica ; Seeman on Palms; Hooker, Him. Journ. ii. pp. 267, 280, 281 ; Schow in Jame son's Edinburgh Philosophical Journal; Mr. H. Robinson in Cal. Cat. Ex. of 1862 ; Voigt, Hortus Suburbanus Calcuttensis ; Boyle, Ill. Him. Botany ; Birdwood's Bombay Products; • Hogg's Vegetable Kingdom ; Gamble's Manual ; Von Mueller's Select Plants.