Some of the palms and other endogenæ are of a most beautiful form, and are moreover quite as useful as beautiful, furnishing food to the inhabitants of many regions, especially the Arabs of the Desert, who carry the dried fruit of the Date-palm with them, on crossing these vast plains of sand, as their chief food. The Plantain (Musa sapientum) forms a most beautiful and graceful object, with its enormous leaves springing up from the ground by their midrib in clusters, and extending upwards for 20 or more feet in graceful curves, affording a shady and cool retreat beneath them from the burning rays of the sun; the fruit is also one of the necessaries of life in the regions where they abound. The Fan-palm is another beautiful specimen, from the fan-like leaves of which the punkahs or Indian fans are made. The Palmyra palm furnishes leaves which are used to thatch houses, the sap is drunk as a refreshing beverage, and when evaporated yields a kind of sugar called "juggery," from which palm-wine is made.
The palms were amongst the first trees created, their fossil stems being constantly found; they were even then associated with the elephant and rhinoceros, and although these are found chiefly in the northern parts of Europe, yet it is much more reasonable to suppose that the climate of these parts has changed, than that these two favourites of the sunny regions should have had their natures changed.
Among the useful members of the endogenæ may be mentioned the Maranta Arundinaceæ, or Arrow-root plant, which is thus described by Dr. Baird:—"It is a genus of monocotyledonous plants, belonging to the natural order Cannaceæ or Marantaceæ, and composed of herbs which have a well-developed rhizome or tuberous root containing a large quantity of fecula or starch. The species are natives for the most part, of tropical America, a few being also found in India. The structure of the flowers is remarkable, and the fruit fleshy. The most important species is the Maranta Arundinaceæ, a plant which is extensively cultivated in the West Indies, the southern parts of the United States, and in the Isle of France, for the sake of its root, which affords the substance so well-known as Arrow-root. This root consists of a tuber of a peculiar form, and contains a large proportion of fecula; the stem is upwards of three feet high, and the flowers are white, delicate, and small. In Cayenne the tubers are eaten by the natives, roasted, as a cure for intermittent fevers, and when bruised, are applied by them to wounds, and considered more especially as a specific against those caused by poisoned arrows, hence the name of Arrow-root."
According to Dr. Livingstone, the inhabitants of Angola live almost exclusively upon the Tapioca plant. He thus describes the mode of preparing it, &c.:—"They (speaking of the half-caste Portuguese) subsist chiefly on the Manioc, and as that can be eaten either raw, roasted, or boiled, as it comes from the ground, or fermented in water and then roasted or dried after fermentation and baked, or pounded or rasped into meal and cooked as farina, or made into confectionery with butter and sugar, it does not so soon pall upon the palate as one might imagine when told that it constitutes their principal food. The leaves, boiled, make an excellent vegetable for the table, and when eaten by goats, their milk is much increased. The wood is a good fuel, and yields a large quantity of potash.... The root, rasped while raw, placed upon a cloth, and rubbed with the hands while water is poured upon it, parts with its starchy glutinous matter, and this, when it settles at the bottom of the vessel and the water is poured off, is placed in the sun till nearly dry to form tapioca, the process of drying is completed on an iron plate over a slow fire, the mass being stirred meanwhile with a stick; when dry, it appears agglutinated into little globules, and is in the form we see in the tapioca of commerce."
Although none of this family of plants produce building timber (according to our notions of that article), yet it is questionable whether we have a greater number of uses for our exogenous woods than are found by the natives of those countries where the Endogenæ abound for palm stems and bamboo canes; as the Grecian styles of architecture arose from the imitation of structures of timber, so the Hindoo and Chinese styles have arisen from imitation of bamboo buildings. There is scarcely a constructive use that can be imagined to which this convenient material is not applied. In the "Penny Cyclopædia" (article "Bambusa") is the following:—
"The purposes to which different species of bamboo are applied, are so numerous that it would be difficult to point out an object in which strength and elasticity are requisite, and for which lightness is no objection, to which the stems are not adapted in the countries where they grow. The young shoots of some species are cut when tender, and eaten like asparagus. The full-grown stems, while green, form elegant cases, exhaling a perpetual moisture, and capable of transporting fresh flowers for hundreds of miles; when ripe and hard, they are converted into bows, arrows, and quivers, lance-shafts, the masts of vessels, bed-posts, walking-sticks, the poles of palanquins, the floors and supporters of rustic bridges, and a variety of similar purposes. In a growing state the spiny kinds are formed into stockades, which are impenetrable to any but regular infantry aided by artillery.
"By notching their sides the Malays make wonderfully light scaling-ladders, which can be conveyed with facility where heavier machines could not be transported. Bruised and crushed in water, the leaves and stems form Chinese paper, the finer qualities of which only are improved by a mixture of raw cotton, and by more careful pounding.
"The leaves of a small species are the material used by the Chinese for the lining of their tea-chests. Cut into lengths and the partitions knocked out, they form durable water-pipes, or by a little contrivance are made into excellent cases for holding rolls of papers; slit into strips they afford a most durable material for weaving into mats, baskets, window-blinds, and even the sails of boats. Finally, the larger and thicker truncheons are exquisitely carved by the Chinese into beautiful ornaments. It is however more especially for building purposes that the bamboo is important (fig. 15). According to Marsden, in Sumatra the framework of the houses of the natives is chiefly composed of this material. In the floorings, whole stems four or five inches in diameter are laid close to each other, and across these laths of split bamboo about an inch wide are fastened down with filaments of rattan-cane. The sides of the houses are closed in with the bamboo opened and rendered flat by splitting or notching the circular joints on the outside, clipping away the corresponding divisions within and laying in the sun to dry pressed down with weights. Whole bamboos often form the upright timbers, and the house is generally roofed in with a thatch of narrow split bamboos six feet long, placed in regular layers, each reaching within two feet of the extremity of that beneath it, by which a treble covering is formed. Another and most ingenious roof is also formed, by cutting large straight bamboos of sufficient length to reach from the ridge to the eaves, then splitting them exactly in two, knocking out the partitions and arranging them in close order, with the hollow or inner sides uppermost; after which a second layer with the outer or convex sides up, is placed upon the other in such a manner that each of the convex falls into the two contiguous concave pieces, covering their edges, the latter serving as gutters to carry off the rain that falls upon the upper or convex layer."
