AS'TROCAR'YUIVI (Gk. ciarpor, astron, star roipeoe, karyon, mit; referring to the arrange ment of the fruits). A genus of palms, of which about thirty species are known, natives of tropi cal America, remarkable for the abundance of acute and formidable spines, in some cases a foot long, with which almost every part—.tem, leaves, spathe. and fruit-stalk—is armed. They have beautiful pinnated leaves; sonic of them are lofty, others are of very moderate height, as S to 15 feet, while some are alim)st or altogether stemless, as istrocarynni acaulc, the lu palm. The fruit of some species is eatable—a juicy pulp covering a stony seed—as the fruit of the Mn•umurti palm (Astrocaryum, inu•nmuni), the pulp of which is \said to resemble a melon in flavor. has a sort of musky odor, and is highly esteemed. It is a palm only about S to 12 feet, high, abundant about Para and elsewhere on the Amazon. Cattle roam the forests in quest of its fruit, and swine fatten on the seed, which they crush with their teeth, although in hardness it almost resembles ve"etable ivory. Another edible fruit is that of the Tucuma palm (Astro caryum tacunia), abundant in the same regions. These fruits are about an inch long, the Muni mura ovate, the Tueumfi almost globular. The Thelma palm is 30 to 40 feet high. the stein en •ircled with narrow rings of black spines. which are disposed with beautiful regularity. The Timm!) palm (.1.strorarynm ritlgarc), a species quite distinct from tile Tucinna, and Mary lofty, is of great importance to the Indians, and in places where it is not indigenous is cultivated with care for the sake of the epiderinis of its unopened leaves, of which they make cordage, very useful for bowstrings, fishing-nets, etc. The fibre is at
once fine, strong, and durable. and may yet per haps become important as an article of commerce. Beautiful hammocks are made of Tucum thread, which are sold at about $15 each, or, if orna mented with feather-work horders, at twice that sum. Martins, in his great work on palms. has, by mistake, represented the Tucumii instead of the Tucum palm as yielding this fibre. (See Wallace, Palm Trees of t)ie Amazon [London, IS53].) The fibre is obtained by cutting down the terminal bud or column of unopened leaves which rises from the centre of the crown of foliage. The tender leaflets are then carefully stripped of their epidermis, in pale, ribbon-like pellicles, which shrivel up almost to a thread. These are tied in bundles and dried, and are afterwards twisted into thread, or made into thicker cords, by mere rolling and manipulation. The mature leaves yield a coarser fibre, which varies consid erably with the different species. It is used for cordage, and the split stems of the new leaves are braided into hats and baskets.