nt when the spadices or sheaths containing the bunches of
flowers are visible but not unfolded, furnish an immense portion of
the food of the natives. The _sagus Rumphii_, which abounds in the
islands of the Indian Archipelago, and though one of the humblest of
the palm tribe, seldom exceeding thirty feet in height, is yet, except
the gomuto, the thickest and largest, alone yields a quantity of
nutritious matter far exceeding that of all other cultivated plants,
inasmuch as a tree in its fifteenth year produces 600 lbs. of sago,
which word, in the language of the Papuas, signifies _bread_, being
the staple food of the islanders. To obtain it, the tree must be cut
down, and the stem divided into pieces, from which the flour is beaten
and washed out[I]. After being cut down, the vegetative power still
remains in the root, which again forms a trunk, and this proceeds
through its different stages, until it is again subjected to the axe,
and made to yield its alimentary contents for the service of man. Nor
is the extraordinary productiveness of a single tree the only point
worthy of notice, for, being endogenous plants, devoid of branches, an
unusual number of them can grow in a small space. Mr. Craufurd
calculates that an English acre could contain four hundred and
thirty-five sago trees, which would yield one hundred and twenty
thousand five hundred pounds avoirdupois of starch, being at the rate
of more than eight thousand pounds yearly. Besides the farina or meal,
every tree cut down furnishes, in its terminal bud, a luxury which is
as much prized as that of the _areca oleracea_, or cabbage palm of the
West Indies, and which is eaten either raw as a salad, or cooked.
Further, the leaves afford so excellent a material for covering
houses, that even in those hot and humid parts of the world, where
decomposition goes on so rapidly, it does not require to be renewed
oftener than once in seven years.

The _Mauritia flexuosa_, or fan palm of the Oronooco, is of still
greater utility to the natives of South America. It is a social palm,
abounding in the marshes, and having a geographical range of very vast
extent. The whole northern portion of South America, east of the
Cordilleras, appears to be possessed of this gorgeous palm; from the
mouth of the Oronooco to the river Amazon, and through the whole of
Guiana, through Surinam and the northern part of Brazil, and in very
various places along the river Amazon, even to its sourc