PLATE 37. PALM (Palmaceæ)
| Cabbage Palmetto. (Courtesy N. C. Geological Survey.) | Washington Palm (untrimmed). (Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co.). | Washington Palm (trimmed). (Los Angeles Chamber Commerce.) |
PALM. PALMACEÆ.
This is one of the largest and most important orders of plants known to man. The one thousand[111] or more known species are distributed over the tropical and semitropical regions of the entire world. Only a few species, including the palmettos of the Gulf States and the fan palms of California are native in the United States.
Palms have tall, columnar trunks without branches, but with crowns of large leaves at their summits. Their forms and proportions are often magnificent. The wood is soft, light, more or less porous, difficult to work, and not strong. The shapes of trunks sometimes cause them to be locally prized for piles, while the porous qualities of the wood are such as to repel teredo.[112] There are many by-products, as fruit, nuts, oil, etc. The rattan or cane palms of India and the Malayan Islands sometimes grow to a height of two hundred feet and are imported into Europe and America for chair-bottoms and the like.
Sudworth[113] enumerates the following as attaining to the dignity of trees in the United States:
- Cabbage Palmetto (Sabal palmetto).
- Silvertop Palmetto (Thrinax microcarpa).
- Silktop Palmetto (Thrinax parviflora).
- Mexican palmetto (Sabal mexicana).
- Sargent Palm (Pseudophœnix sargentii).
- Fanleaf Palm (Washingtonia filifera).
- Royal Palm (Oredoya regia).
FOOTNOTES