244. The CABBAGE-TREE (Areca oleracea) is an American species of palm, which grows to the height of a hundred feet and upwards, and is destitute of leaves until within a few feet of the summit. The leaves, sometimes near twenty feet long, are winged, and the leaflets are entire.
Such is the general elegance of this tree that it is frequently denominated the queen of woods. Its fruit, which grows in bunches from the top, is an oblong and obtuse kind of berry, of bluish purple colour, and about the size of an olive. The sheaths of the flowers, and the floral leaves, when first developed, are folded round each other, enclosed in a thin, green, and spongy bark, eight or nine inches in circumference, and constitute the part which is denominated the cabbage. This is white, and, when boiled, is esteemed a great luxury. It is also eaten raw as a salad, and fried with butter; and its taste is said to resemble that of an artichoke. This part is likewise frequently made into a pickle with vinegar and spices.
We are informed that the cabbage-tree was first introduced into Jamaica by Admiral Knowles, when governor of that island; and that it has since been cultivated there with great attention. But it is chiefly planted for its beauty, being considered too valuable to be often cut down for the small portion of food which it thus affords, however delicious that may be.
In the leaves of this tree there is a thread-like substance, which is sometimes spun, like hemp, and made into different kinds of cordage. The sockets or grooves formed by the broad part of the footstalks of the leaves are used by the negroes as cradles for their children; and on the inner sides of the very young footstalks there are tender pellicles, which, when dried, may be converted into paper. The trunks, when cleared of the pith, serve as water pipes and gutters. Of the pith a kind of sago is made; and in this pith, after the trees are felled, there is bred a large species of caterpillar which the inhabitants of some of the West Indian islands eat as a great delicacy.
245. The CATECHU, ARECA, or BETEL-NUT-TREE (Areca catechu), is a species of palm which grows in the East Indies.
It is generally from thirty to forty feet high, and its trunk is six or eight inches in diameter. The leaves, which grow on the summit, are winged, having the leaflets folded back; and the fruit is a pulpy berry with thin skin, containing a nut about an inch in length, and of a rounded conical form.
The kernel of the areca-nut, which is covered by a thin, smooth, and yellowish shell, is somewhat like a nutmeg, but contains, in the centre, a white, soft, greyish, and almost liquid substance, which becomes hard as the nut ripens. This fruit is in general use by the Indians, who cut it into slices, mix it with other substances, wrap it in the leaves of betel ([22]), and chew it much in the same manner as the common people of our country chew tobacco. The consumption of these nuts in India is almost beyond calculation. They are an article of considerable trade, from port to port; and also from India to China, but they are seldom brought into England, though they might be of use in some of our manufactures.
The drug called catechu, and formerly terra japonica, was supposed to be an extract prepared from the above nuts; but it is now ascertained to be made from the wood of a species of mimosa.
MONADELPHIA.
246. The SCOTS FIR (Pinus sylvestris), which has its name from growing wild in different parts of Scotland, is known from other trees of the same tribe by having its slender and somewhat needle-shaped leaves in pairs; its cones or seed-vessels somewhat egg-shaped, mostly in pairs, as long as the leaves, and the scales blunt.