sizes, from the dwarf bamboo, as slender as a wheatstalk, and only two feet high, to the Bambusa maxima, as thick as a man's body, and towering to the height of a hundred feet. Ere man learned THE groves were God's first temples. To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,1 And spread the roof above them, ere he framed The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down And offered to the Mightiest, solemn thanks Father, thy hand Hath reared these venerable columns; thou Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down Upon the naked earth, and, forthwith, rose All these fair ranks of trees. They, in thy sun, Budded, and shook their green leaves in thy breeze, 1 ar'chi-trave, the lower division of an entablature. As now they stand, massy, and tall, and dark, The boast of our vain race to change the form - Of thy fair works. But thou art here, thou fill'st The solitude. Thou art in the soft winds That run along the summit of these trees In music; thou art in the cooler breath, That, from the inmost darkness of the place, Comes, scarcely felt; the barky trunks, the ground, The fresh, moist ground, are all instinct with thee. My heart is awed within me, when I think Lo! all grow old and die, — but see, again, Wave not less proudly that their ancestors Then let me often to these solitudes And tremble, and are still. Oh! God, when thou The swift, dark whirlwind that uproots the woods 1. LINNÆUS has well called the tall and crested palm trees "the princes of the vegetable world," for wherever they bloom they enrich the landscape with their grace and majesty. The most perfect of the family have a tall cylindrical stem, which shoots upward from the earth, without knot or blemish, like an Ionic column; springing to an immense height, and yet so symmetrical that its slenderness conveys no idea of feebleness. The summit bears a crown of emerald-green plumes, like a diadem of gigantic ostrich-feathers. These are DATE-PALM. frequently twenty feet long, droop slightly at the ends, and rustle musically in the breeze. 2. In the arid desert it forms an object of peculiar beauty, as it soars, erect and graceful, near some welcome spring of living waters, a landmark to the way worn traveler. But to see it in all its glory you should visit the palm-groves of tropical America or Polynesia, and wander enchanted in their grateful shades. Under the natural screen which their thick green feathery branches supply, the orange and the lemon, the pomegranate, the olive, the almond, and the vine flourish in wild luxuriance, and yield an abundance of luscious fruit. And, while the eye is never weary of gazing on the glorious blossoms which brighten and adorn the scene, the ear is also ravished with the sweet clear melody of numerous birds, attracted to the palm-grove by its cool shadows, its fruits, and its crystal springs. 3. In Ceylon and Malabar one of the principal palms is the remarkable talipat, or umbrella palm, sometimes called the great fan-palm, which frequently reaches a height of a hundred feet. It is straight as a giant's spear, five feet in circumference at the foot, and tapers toward the summit, where it terminates in a magnificent crown of enormous plaited leaves. Each leaf, near the outer margin, is divided into numerous segments, and united to the trunk by spiny leaf-stalks. It usually measures about eighteen feet in length, exclusive of the leaf-stalk, and about fourteen feet in breadth, so that a single leaf will form an excellent canopy for a score of men. 4. This palm is employed for many important purposes, such as roofing houses or making tents. The Singalese noble, on state occasions, is always followed by an atten dant bearing above his head a richly ornamented talipat leaf, which can be folded up, like a fan, into a roll of the thickness of a man's arm, and is wonderfully light. In Malabar the leaves are used as a substitute for paper, after a preliminary process of boiling, drying, damping, rubbing, and pressing. The oil employed in coloring the writing preserves them from insects, but changes with age, so that a Singalese determines the date of a book by carefully smelling of it. 5. All the palms serve the needs of man. What would become of the wanderer in the deserts of Arabia and Barbary should the date-palm suddenly become extinct? Thousands of human beings would inevitably perish, for the inhabitants of Fezzan live wholly upon its saccharine and delicious fruit for nine months of the year. In Egypt, Arabia, and Persia it forms the principal food of the people, and a man's wealth is computed by the number of date-palms be possesses. When dried, the fruit becomes an important commercial staple. Cakes of dates, pounded and kneaded until solid enough to be cut by a hatchet, supply the provision of the African caravans on their toilsome journey through the wastes of the Sahara. 6. To the inhabitant of Northern Africa the date is food, comfort, wealth, nay, life. It is easy to understand the gratitude cherished by the Arab towards the date-palm. It thrives in the sandy waste, draws sustenance from brackish water fatal to almost every other plant, preserves its freshness when all around it decays. and withers under the rays of an implacable sun, and resists the tempests which bow its flexible crest but cannot tear up its solidly planted roots. Without this tree the nomadic tribes of this region must cease to exist. |