A woodcut headpiece featuring elaborate scrolling acanthus leaves and floral patterns. In the center is a human figure shown from the chest up, integrated into the decorative foliage.

NEW

AMERICAN PLANT

GENERA.

T H E P A L M.

The PALM is truly the most noble of plants, and one highly worthy of being the first to establish its genus among the plants of America; for it raises its head higher than the other plants growing among them. Nevertheless, it is most difficult to determine from what source the defining character of its genus should be taken, since nature plays with a wonderful variety in its flowers and fruits. In some species, the flowers are monopetalous composed of a single petal, in others polypetalous composed of multiple petals; of these, some are fertile and others sterile. In one species, the fertile and sterile flowers are contained within the same sheath vaginaIn botany, a "vagina" refers to a sheath-like part of a plant, such as a leaf base that wraps around the stem or a protective covering for a flower cluster., but are separated from one another; in another species, however, the sterile flowers are in one sheath and the fertile in another. Finally, in certain species, the flowers are entirely sterile and the naked embryos are separated from the flowers.

A remarkable variety is also found in the fruits. For in certain species of palms, the fruits are fleshy and soft, and filled with a very hard stone (I shall call these date-bearing original Latin: "dactyliferas"); in others, however, they are dry, hard, or turning into a bony shell, wrapped in a soft or fibrous husk, and containing a kernel—either solid and whole, or hollow but filled with a watery liquid (these I shall call coco-bearing original Latin: "cociferas"). Therefore, in such a great variety of flowers and fruits, what sort of character should be assigned from these flowers and fruits is dif-