Palm

pam, a large family, including 1,000 species of useful plants, chiefly tropical. Most palms are trees, some are dwarf in habit, and others again are creeping vines. A tuft of leaves at the end of the stem falls away as the stem rises or advances, giving the upright trees an arrowy stem, twenty to 150 feet in height. The stem is surmounted by a spreading crown of long, graceful leaves, attaining a size of thirty feet in length by four feet in width. The creeping stem of the rattan palm winds its way like a slender pumpkin vine over and through the jungle until the terminal tuft is, it is alleged, 600 feet from the original root.

The palm family ranks next to the grass family in utility to mankind. A mere enumeration of the various uses to which the different palms are put would require pages. Salt is obtained from palm ashes; meal, from the pith; "cabbage," from the crown; walls and rafters are made of the stems; the leaves are used for roofing; the seeds afford oil and fruit; palms supply sago, raffia, rattan, ropes, soap, and medicine. Entire tribes are dependent on palms for food, shade, shelter, clothing, furniture, and luxuries. A study of the uses of the palm and its part in the history of mankind would be the work of a lifetime.

St. John states that the people of Jerusalem, hearing that Christ was coming, "took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him." The Psalmist says, "The righteous flourish like a palm tree." In Revelations vii: 8, "Lo a great multitude . . . stood before the throne . . . with palms in their hands." The crusaders marched to the rescue of Jerusalem bearing branches of palm trees, and for centuries a holy palmer (read Marmion and Ivanhoe), was one who had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher and Jerusalem and had brought away a palm branch in token of his journey.

Various palms are discussed under separate titles. See Raffia; Rattan; Sago; Palmetto; Date; Cocoanut