th.

There is something comical in having to add that these clinging rattan
stems, which cannot support their own weight, have a proverbial fame,
and are in great request for the manufacture of walking-sticks. They
are also largely imported into Great Britain for canework.

Another very striking genus (_Astrocaryum_) is remarkable for being
clothed in every part--stem, leaves, and spathe--with sharp spines,
which are sometimes twelve inches long. _Astrocaryum murumura_ is
edible. The pulp of the fruit is said to be like that of a melon, and it
has a musky odour. It is a native of tropical America, and abundant on
the Amazon. Cattle wander about the forests in search of it, and pigs
fatten on the nut, which they crunch with their teeth, though it is
exceedingly hard.

The date palm yields a wine called toddy, or palm wine, and from the
Princes of Vegetation is also distilled a strong spirit called arrack.

And speaking again of the Judaean palms, I must here say a word of those
which we associate with Palm Sunday--the willow palms--for which we used
to hunt when we were children.

It is hardly necessary to state that these willow branches, with their
soft silvery catkins, the crown of the earliest spring nosegays which
the hedges afford, are not even distantly related to the Princes of
Vegetation, though we call them palms. They are called palms simply from
having taken the place of real palm-branches in the ceremonies of the
Sunday of our Lord's Entry into Jerusalem, where these do not grow.

A very old writer, speaking of the Jews strewing palm-branches before
Christ, says: "And thus we take palm and flowers in procession as they
did ... in the worship and mind of Him that was done on the cross,
worshipping and welcoming Him with song into the Church, as the people
did our Lord into the city of Jerusalem. It is called Palm Sunday for
because the palm betokeneth victory; wherefore all Christian people
should bear palm in procession, in token that He hath foughten with the
fiend our enemy, and hath the victory of hym."

A curious old Scotch custom is recorded in Lanark, as "kept by the boys
of the Grammar-school, beyond all memory in regard to date, on the
Saturday before Palm Sunday. They then parade the streets with a palm,
or its substitute, a large tree of the willow kind (_Salix caprea_), in
blossom, ornamented with daffodils, mezereon, and box-tree. This day is
called Palm Saturday, and the custom is certain