here the greatest number
of species belong to the islands.

I might tell you a great deal of the importance of these noble trees to
the human race, for they are as useful as they are beautiful. Almost
every sort has its particular use in the economy of human life. Not
only do they serve certain purposes in Africa, Asia, America, and
Oceanica, but in all these divisions of the earth there are whole
nations who _live almost exclusively_ upon one or another species of
palm.

A discovery has lately been made in regard to an African species, which
it is to be hoped will have an important influence in doing away with
the infamous slave traffic so long existing in that unhappy country.
You have heard of _palm-oil_. Well, it is extracted from the nuts of a
species of palm. The oil is no new discovery, but it is only lately
that it has been found to be as quite as good for the manufacture of
candles as either spermaceti or wax. The consequence has been a great
increase in the traffic of this article on the western coast of Africa;
and the native princes, finding that it is more profitable than
slave-selling, have in many parts given up the last-named atrocious
commerce, and have taken to gathering palm-oil. If a palm-tree can
effect what has baffled the skill of the combined philanthropists and
powers of Europe, then, indeed, we shall say, "All honour to the noble
palms."

But I might go on talking of palms until our little volume came to an
end. I must, therefore, no longer speak generally of these beautiful
trees, but confine myself to such species as came under the observation,
and ministered to the wants, of the new settlers.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

A HOUSE OF PALMS.

The first species of palms that attracted the observation of Don Pablo
and his party, was that known as the "patawa" palm. It belongs to the
genus _Cenocarpus_. There are several species of this genus in South
America, but none more beautiful than the "patawa." It is a palm with a
straight smooth stem, and pinnate leaves--the stem being sixty feet in
height, and about a foot in diameter. The stem becomes smooth only in
old trees. In the young ones, and even in those that stand in a thick
shady forest, it presents a very shaggy appearance, and is completely
hidden by the bases of the old leaves that have decayed and fallen off.
From the margins of these bases grow spinous processes of nearly three
feet in length, which point upward. These a