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Updated: June 28, 2025
So far it has proved itself perfectly hardy in this country, there being specimens at wide distances apart that have stood uninjured through our past severe winters. The leaves are pale green, and pinnate, somewhat resembling those of the Rowan Tree.
Upward, the white plumule hardens into what will be a stem; the one white cotyledon which sheaths it develops into a flat, ribbed, forked, green leaf, sheathing it still; and above it fresh leaves, sheathing always at their bases, begin to form a tiny crown; and assume each, more and more, the pinnate form of the usual coco-leaf.
They were very tall, with a thick, globe-shaped head of pinnate, plume-like leaves. But what rendered these trees peculiar was the stem. It was slender in proportion to the height of the tree, and was thickly covered with long needle-shaped spines, not growing irregularly, but set in bands, or rings, around the tree.
It was thicker at the base than the top, and the top itself rose several feet above the tuft of pinnate, feathery fronds, ending in a pointed spike. It was the "jara" palm, of the genus Leopoldinia. It was the fruits upon which Guapo bent his eyes with earnestness. Each one was as large as a peach, of an oval shape, slightly flattened, and of a yellowish green colour.
Nor is he more successful in his discussion of the nature of stems. As to leaves, he is more definite and satisfactory, though wholly in the dark as to their function; he is quite clear that the pinnate leaf of the rowan tree, for instance, is a leaf and not a branch. Ibid. i. 1, ix. Ibid. iii. 18, x. De causis plantarum, ii. 23.
Incomplete analogies prevent Europeans from having a just idea of the aspect of the torrid zone. All the world knows, for instance, that this zone is embellished by the contrasts exhibited in the foliage of the trees, and particularly by the great number of those with pinnate leaves.
The leaves are large, pinnate, shining, and very smooth and irregular. They grow out of the trunk, the whole of which is covered with a coating of fibres hanging down like coarse hair. It is called by the natives piassaba. This fibre is manufactured into cables and small ropes.
In the crevices of logs supporting the water-trough, which proved to be a popular refreshment spot of many species of birds, clamorous with thirst, seeds were deposited, and when the rains came the trough was fringed and decorated with pinnate leaves of sprouting wattles, some of which grew so strongly, notwithstanding the absence of soil, save that which occurs from the slow decay of seasoned bloodwood, that if summary measures had not been taken the trough might have been embowered.
Its trunk rose full seventy feet without a branch; and then it spread out in every direction in numerous horizontal limbs, that forked and forked again until they became slender boughs. These branches were clad with the delicate pinnate leaves that characterise the family of the mimosas. Many of the pupunha palms grew under the shadow of this zamang, but not the tallest ones.
Magnificent tea-trees, Casuarinas, and Terminalias, gave a refreshing shade, and Pandanus and Corypha palms added to the beauty of the spot. The plains were well-grassed, but full of melon-holes. I observed on them a few small trees, belonging to the Sapindaceae, with pinnate and rather drooping leaves, with a light grey bark, exuding a good eatable gum.
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