Digitale Ausgabe

The family of the Palms thrives bestbetween the tropics, in the plains, andto the height of 500 fathoms, in placeswhere the mean temperature in summeris from 19° to 28° of the centigradethermometer, and—excepting the islandof Cuba, to which the north wind fromCanada brings a colder air—where thecold in winter is not below 15°. Onlyvery few of their mountain varietiesgrow in the equinoctial region on theacclivities of the Andes up to the heightof 1300 fathoms and more, as the Oreo-doxa frigida and the Ceroxylon andicola. Beyond the tropics the Phœnix dactyli-fera, the Chamœrops humilis and Palmet-ta, together with Areca Novæ Zeelandiæ, are found in tracts where the averagewarmth does not exceed 15° or 16°, andwhere the ground is sometimes coveredfor several days with snow. In the time of Linnæus no more thanfifteen varieties of the palm were known:to these Ruiz and Pavon have addedeight; Willdenow and Bredemeyer, six;and Humboldt and Bonpland twentymore. From a list collected by Kunth,from the later botanists it appears thatat least 87 kinds of palms from Americaalone were known at that time; andthese added to the 50 species of the oldcontinent discovered up to April, 1816, |Spaltenumbruch| make the total family amount to 137 va-rieties. In Willdenow’s System of Bo-tany, 70 palms are enumerated; andHumboldt and Bonpland saw, duringtheir travels, more than 45. We may,however, venture to assume, that in thewhole torrid zone the number of the va-rieties of the palm must be much moreextensive, if we consider that, on theone hand, the greatest part of Africa,Asia, and New Holland, is yet unex-plored; and that, on the other, accord-ing to authentic observations whichHumboldt and Bonpland themselveshad occasion to make during their fiveyears’ peregrinations, the plants of thisfamily are confined within such narrowlimits that almost every fifty leagues newspecies of them are met with. In regard to port and form the palmspresent the greatest diversity. Some (Kunthea montana, Aiphanes praga,Oreodoxa frigida) have only a weak,reed-like stem; while that of others (Jubæa spectabilis, Cocos butyracea) mea-sures from three to five feet in diameter.Some (Mauritia flexuosa, Chamœropshumilis) grow sociably together; whileothers (Oreodoxa regia, Martinezia ca-ryotæfolia) occur but singly. This (Ac-talea amygdalina) has a very low trunk;that (Ceroxylon andicola) attains theheight of 160 or 180 feet. These (Co-rypha tectorum, Alfonsia oleifera) inha-bit the plains only of the tropical re-gions, or the mountain-slopes to the ele-vation of 300 fathoms, while others—which the travellers believe to have beenwholly unknown previously to theirvisit to the Andes—approach the limitsof everlasting snow. To the alpine andsub-alpine vegetables belong the follow-ing species: Kunthia montana grows at the eleva-tion of from 250 to 800 and even 1000fathoms, in the temperate region of theheart-leafed cinchona, on the declivityof the Bater, in the neighbourhood of thevalley of Hato Viejo and the village ofSt. Paul, whence the plant bears like-wise the name of Canna de San Pablo, or, de la Vibora; in the woods of theAlps of Pastoens between Chilanquerand Barbacoas, as also on the mountainsof the province of Mocoa, which have amoderate temperature. Oreodoxa frigida, at the elevation offrom 1000 to 1400 fathoms, on the Alpsof Quito, in company with the walnut-tree and Podokarpos. Ceroxylon andicola, at 920 to 1500fathoms, on the Alps of Tolimen andMount St. John, in company with the

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* Nova Genera et Species Plantarumquas in Peregrinatione ad Plagam œquinoc-tialem Orbis novi colligerunt. fol.|398| |Spaltenumbruch| Oreodoxa frigida and the Quercus grana-tensis: it can endure a nocturnal cold ofat farthest 6° to 8°. This beautifulpalm, remarkable for having its wholestem overgrown with foliage, is most fre-quently met with on the eastern declivityof the Andes of Quito, between Nevadosde San Juan and Tolima, in the vicinityof Passo del Machin, Alto de las Sepul-turas and Los Galiegos. It is found alsoof very large size near El Inciencial, atan elevation of 1240 fathoms. In theenvirons of Los Volcanitos and La Garitadel Paramo, the Ceroxylon anaicola wasnot found higher than 1500 fathoms; itgrows in company with the Escalloniæ and Thibaudiæ. Joseph de Caldas and George Thad-dæus Lozano, two celebrated botanists ofNew Grenada, have found three otheralpine palms on the mountains of Guana (Paramo de Guanacas) not far from theregion of everlasting snow. For a long time botanists knew of noother palms than those with six pistils.More recently we have been made ac-quainted with six varieties having manypistils; three of which (Caryota, Mani-curia, and Latania,) belong to the oldworld; and the other three, described byRuiz, Pavon, and Humboldt (Ceroxylon,Jubæa, and Attalæa) to the Andes. Thosespecies the pith of which furnishes a kind ofsago-flour that forius an excellent articleof food for the inhabitants of the newworld, deserve to be particularly recom-mended to the notice of future travellersin America. It would lead me too far were I to at-tempt to enumerate the various uses towhich the palm-trees are applied. Allyour readers know that they furnish arti-cles of the most dissimilar nature—wine,oil, wax, flour, sugar, and salt. In the tracts to the north of the line,between the mountains of Caraccas andthe River of Amazons, traversed byHumboldt and Bonpland, they found thepalms in general in blossom in Januaryand February, but some of them flowerat other seasons of the year. If the family of the palms is distin-guished by beauty of form and itslarge size from almost all the other fami-lies of vegetables, so likewise does it sur-pass them in fecundity and abundance offruit; and the powerful action of the sapis developed not only in thick umbra-geous foliage, but also in an innumerablemultitude of flowers and fruit. Not onlythe fields planted with palm-trees, buteven the soil that has never been culti-vated by man is frequently covered to |Spaltenumbruch| the depth of three inches with the fruitof the Alfonsia, Cocos butyracea, Seje,Pihiguao, and Mauritia. Every flower capsule of the date-tree (Phœnix dactylifera) contains, accord-ing to Kämpfer (Amœn. exot. p. 699),above 12,000 male flowers. Humboldtand Bonpland have found a much greaternumber upon the Alfonsia amygdalina. In one single catkin-shaped bunch offlowers, of which each capsule containsfrom 110 to 120, they counted 1800male flowers; so that the total numberin each capsule may be computed at207,000 flowers. According to a similarcalculation every branch of the Seje, which furnishes an excellent aliment onthe banks of the Oroonoko, produces8000 fruits, many of which indeed dropoff before maturity. In the palm-groundsplanted with the l’ihiguao each treeyields annually upon an average 400fruits of the shape of apples; and theFranciscans on the Oroonoko and Guai-nia know from experience that wheneverthere is an uncommonly abundant cropof palm fruit the Indians grow remark-ably fat.

Selector. (To be continued.)

THE monocotyledons, or plants thatgrow with one seed-lobe only, present thegreatest diversity as well in regard to thebeauty of their forms as to the variety oftheir colours. In the family of the Orchides,the flower-sheath, which, in the grasses, thecyperus-grasses, the families of the junceæand the palms, is pale, small, and nowiseremarkable, is adorned with the most di-versified colours, so as to surpass eventhe superb flowers of the amaryllis, theiris, and the banana genus. The or-chides, in fact, are the chief ornament ofthe vegetable kingdom in the equinoctialregions; and if, according to the testi-mony of Brown, fewer plants of thatfamily occur between the tropics in NewHolland (where so many unusual andextraordinary things are met with), thanbetween the 33d and 35th degree of lati-tude, this circumstance must be consi-dered as an exception: but their pre-ference of a damp and mild atmosphereexplains the reason why the epidendron-orchides extend in the southern hemi-sphere so far towards the south pole,since they there find in winter a mode-rate temperature similar to that of thevallies among the mountains of the tro-pical regions. It is impossible to calculate—as the |Spaltenumbruch| celebrated authors of the Flora of Perualso attest—how abundant a harvest oforchides the mild climate of the deepand shady vallies in the range of theAndes still reserve for future travellers;for it may be confidently asserted, thatwe are not acquainted with more thanthe twentieth part of them. In all Eu-rope we find but from 70 to 80 speciesof orchis; whereas in the equinoctial re-gions of America, whose mountainousparts are yet so little known, 244 specieshave already been observed by botanists,and 61 of these are new ones discoveredby Humboldt and Bonpland. The knownorchides of the Old and New World donot amount to 700: Willdenow has enu-merated only 394, of which 152 are Ame-rican. Though the plants of the orchis familyare found scattered in both worlds fromthe sea-coast to the height of 1800 or1900 fathoms; still we are justified inasserting, that, from the multitude oftheir varieties, from the profusion of theirfoliage and the brilliancy and fragranceof their flowers, the vallies of the Andesof Mexico, New Grenada, Quito andPeru may be properly called their nativecountry, where they thrive best in themoist shade, in a mild air, at an eleva-tion of between 800 and 1100 fathoms,and in a mean temperature of 17° to 19°. The species of orchis with spur-shapedflowers are very rare in the torrid zone,and with few exceptions their forms inthe temperate and frigid zones are es-sentially different, so that in the northernhemisphere we find the varieties of the Orchis Habenaria, Cypripedium, Ophrys,Serapius, Epipactes, &c.; but in thesouthern those of the Satyrium, Pteripo-dium, Disperis, Corycium, Stilidium,Disa, Pterostylis, Acianthus, &c. Theorchides of the equinoctial regions be-long chiefly to the epidendron genus.They are distinguished from the orchidesof the temperate and frigid zones by adifferent appearance, and more especiallyby this circumstance, that the formeralmost always grow in society and upontrees, while the latter spring up singlywithout support. Very few species,which, if I may so express myself, dis-play the physiognomy of the north, asthe Ophrys, Habenaria, Altensteinia,occur between the tropics, and notmerely on the ridges of the loftiestmountains, but sometimes also in theplains. The temperate zone of the twogreat continents possesses no more thanfour species in common: these are: Satyrium viride, Orchis hyperborea, |21| |Spaltenumbruch| Neottia repens, Neottia tortilis. It isremarkable that the Dendrobium poly-stachion, which grows on the mountainsof Jamaica and in the woods of Guiana,has been found also in the island of St.Maurice. (Schwartz, Flor. Ind. occ. T. 3. p. 1433). Whether it be actuallythe same species seems however to bedoubtful. Most of the orchides of thetorrid zone contain in their roots a whitefloury substance, which not unfre-quently possesses alimentary properties;some, as the Pleurothallis sagittifera contain also in their bulbs a viscid juicewhich may be employed as glue. The monocotyledons in general con-tain a large proportion of starch (amylum)partly in the fruit (the grasses, the un-ripe fruit of the Musa, the Palma Pihi-guao) partly in the stem (Sagus Mauri-tius) partly in the roots (the arums, theorchides, the families of the Lilies and Dioscoreœ, Maranta Indica). The juiceof the Grasses and of the Agaves, theAreng palm, and the ripe fruit of thePisang on the other hand contain sugar.That starch and sugar should occur atonce in the same plant, and often in thesame parts of it, will appear the less ex-traordinary, when we consider, that mo-dern chemists have found in both nearlythe same proportions of oxygen, hydro-gen and carbon, and that sweet beer isproduced by sprouted barley. The an-cients themselves seem to have had somenotion of the conversion of the starchinto sugar. Among others, Prosper Al-pinus relates, that the Pisang (Musa pa-radisiaca) sprung from the engrafting ofthe sugar-cane upon the Colocasia: andin like manner Abd Allatif assures usthat when a date-stone germinates in aColocasia root the produce is a pisang-plant. The glutinous juice secreted bynature in the bulbous roots of the or-chides differs from the genuine viscidmatter of corn, as does the latter fromthat made of bird-lime berries, and thebark of the holly. An aroma which ex-cites the nerves is found in the flower ofthe lily, asphodel and narcissus, in thebulb of the crocus, in the fruit of thevanilla and cardamom, in the roots ofthe varieties of Canna, and in the wholefamily of the Peperomiœ. Acids, astrin-gent matter, resins, camphor, poisons,tannin, and vegetable milk occur butvery rarely among the monocotyledons.The Colchica, and some species of ama-ryllis alone furnish a poison, the onlyantidote to which is the juice of the palmthat Humboldt calls Kunthia. The |Spaltenumbruch| Smilax, and varieties of Scilla containastringent matter; and resin is found inthe Aloe. An astringent principle, whichhas not yet been duly examined, is con-tained in the Dracœna Draco and in the Agave, the juice of which is used as acaustic in wounds. It is inconceivablehow the celebrated Fourcroy could as-sert that the monocotyledons, withoutexception, are destitute of oil, since thecoco is planted in the tropical regionsfor the same purpose as our olive. De-candolle (Essai sur les Proprietés medi-cales des Plantes) has already made theingenious remark, that the monocotyle-dons, because their returning sap vesselsare distributed through the whole stemand not collected together into a mass ofbark, want nearly all that which, as theproper cortical substance, is found in theplants that germinate with two-seedlobes (dicotyledons), as Knight’s experi-ments (Phil. Trans. 1801, p. 337) une-quivocally demonstrate.

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|109| |Spaltenumbruch|

MESSRS. HUMBOLDT and Bon-pland were so fortunate as to meet withtwo specimens of the Bamboo tree inflower; the one on the bank of the riverCassaquiar, which is a branch of the Oro-noko, and the other at the village of ElMuerto, in the province of Popayan.These reed-like trees, though they coverdamp and swampy tracts of great ex-tent, and attain the height of from 50 to80 feet, are nevertheless very rarely seenin blossom in America. Various obser-vant travellers who have visited the guadales—as the swamps occupied bybamboos are termed by the inhabitants—never had the good fortune to obtain asight of the flowers or fruit either inPeru or New Granada. In the EastIndies, on the other hand, the giganticgrasses blossom so abundantly, that theseeds of the bamboo mixed with honeyare a common dish with the people of |Spaltenumbruch| Mysore. According to a notion preva-lent there, the plant does not bear fruittill it is fifteen years old, and soon after-wards dies. There too a distinction ismade between the bamboo with a solidstem, which the natives call chitter, andwhich grows in a dry soil, and the bam-boo with a hollow stem, termed doda,which grows more rapidly, and in moistsituations. The guadua bamboo was found byMessrs. Humboldt and Bonpland onmountains to the height of 860 fathoms;and what is still more remarkable, thesemountain trees, though growing upon asoil equally damp, contained morewater than those of the level country. Inmore elevated regions the tree grows se-parately in the thickets; but in theplains, and to the height of 400 fathoms,it forms extensive woods. The bamboobelongs to the plants that grow in society. The American bamboos render thesame services in the New World as thoseof the East Indies in the old. Wholehouses are built of the Bambus guadia. The oldest and thickest trunks are em-ployed for the walls; the roof is formedwith the smaller, and these are coveredwith the young branches that haveleaves. The doors and household fur-niture also are made of bamboo. Theadvantages which cause the Americansto prefer the use of bamboo to that ofthe hard wood of the lofty trees whichevery where grow in the vicinity of theirhabitations, consist in the facility withwhich it may be felled and wrought, inits durability and the coolness enjoyedin houses constructed with it, owing tothe free current of air which they afford. The water contained in the Americanbamboo has a somewhat saline but notdisagreeable taste. The inhabitants as-sert that it acts powerfully on the urinarypassages. Of the sweet bamboo-honeyM. von Humboldt could discover notraces in the New World; but in thekingdom of Quito he met with the ta-baschir, differing but little from that ofthe East Indies. A piece of it, given byhim to M. Vauquelin, was found by thatchemist to be composed of \( \frac{70}{100} \) of siliceousearth, and \( \frac{30}{100} \) of potash, lime and water.The American tabaschir is called by theSpaniards bamboo-fat. “I cannot con-ceive,” says the traveller, “how writerswho have made the sugar of the ancientsa subject of their enquiry, can comparethe tabaschir, which is white and brittlelike starch, with honey. For my ownpart, I could not perceive any sweet tastein the tabaschir of Quito, though it was |110| |Spaltenumbruch| yet moist and viscid: and I have somedoubts whether the tree-like reeds ofAmerica contain a sweet juice at all.The tabaschir, indeed, before it becomesby desiccation as hard as stone, isclammy, white, and milky: when it hasbeen kept five months it emits an ex-tremely fetid animal odour. The samewas observed by Russel respecting thesalt of the Asiatic bamboo, and Garciasab Orto, who long resided at Goa asphysician to the viceroy, has alone as-cribed a sweet taste to the juice of thebamboo. It appears, however, that theancients mistook the tabaschir for realsugar; partly because both are the pro-duce of reed-like plants, and partly be-cause the Sanscrit word scharkara, whichat the present day is used like the Per-sian schakar, and the Hindustanee schukar to denote our sugar, does notproperly imply something sweet, butsomething stony or sandy, and even theurinary calculus. It is therefore proba-ble that the word scharkara was at firstused for the tabaschir alone, and in thesequel transferred to our sugar from thesmaller sugar-cane on account of its simi-lar figure. The word bamboo is derivedfrom mambu, and from canda comes ourterm sugar-candy, as does tabaschir from the Persian word schir, which sig-nifies milk. “Under the name of saccharum Plinycertainly described the tabaschir of thebamboo as“ a honey collected from thestems of reeds, which is white like gum,breaks between the teeth, is of the sizeof a nut, and is applicable to medicinalpurposes alone.” The ancients had,nevertheless, some knowledge of oursugar, which was said to be producedin India without bees. Several writersof antiquity believed that a sweet honey-like juice was expressed from the rootsof lofty reeds, thus confounding the rootwith the stem, and the comparatively lowsugar-cane with the tall bamboo-tree.Some of them even had a notion that thegenuine cane-sugar was a dew which set-tled upon the leaves of those plants.The sugar-cane indeed grows wild andin a natural state near Almansura in theEast Indies, on the banks of the Eu-phrates, and at Siraf; yet I presume thatin the regions of Asia visited by theGreeks the juice of the cane was ex-pressed only for the purpose of an imme-diate beverage, and that the ancients hadnot consequently any knowledge of solidsugar, so that wherever the term is em-ployed by them it signifies the tabaschir of the bainboo. |Spaltenumbruch| “It is almost superfluous to observethat before the Spaniards opened theway to America, the inhabitants of thatcontinent and the adjacent islands werestrangers to the sugar cane as well as toour different kinds of corn and rice.The Spanish writers on America, indeed,give the name of little rice to the cheno-podium quino, which is common in Bogotaand Quito, as the Anglo-Americans terma species of zizania, wild rice of Canada.Maize or Turkey corn, like other plantsof ancient cultivation, does not growwild in any part of the new continent.It were to be wished that some futuretraveller would furnish more particularinformation respecting the magu-cornand tuca-barley, of which Molini makesvery brief mention in his History ofChili, and of which the Araucaniansformerly made their Covque bread.From maize and the agave the Ameri-cans prepared the honey not producedby bees, which, as Hernando Cortez in-forms us, was carried for sale to theirmarkets.”