Identifier: palmtree00mood (find matches)Title: The palm treeYear: 1864 (1860s)Authors: Moody, SophySubjects: Palms Trees in the BiblePublisher: London : T. Nelson and Sons, Paternoster Row Edinburgh, and New YorkContributing Library: NCSU LibrariesDigitizing Sponsor: NCSU LibrariesView Book Page: Book ViewerAbout This Book: Catalog EntryView All Images: All Images From BookClick here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.Text Appearing Before Image:Clje irag f aim. (Preodoxa regia.—Humboldt and Kunth.Pahna real.—De la Havana.) N the threshold of the great continent ofAmerica, in the lovely island of Cuba, thesestately palms met the eyes of Columbus,the discoverer of the New World. While yet in the first eager excitementof wonder and delight at the splendoursof tropical scenery unfolding themselves to him, thesesuperb trees, two hundred feet high, and crowned withwaving plumes, must have looked to Columbus like themagnificent nobles of some mighty kingdoms tandingin the antechamber of their sovereign, to greet thearrival of an honoured guest. But these matchlesspalms were as monarchs themselves; for even amongsttheir kindred, in beauty and in majesty they areunrivalled. Their kingly designation, conferred onthem by the people of their country, has been con-firmed by the most accomplished of European tra-vellers. The splendid forests of the mainland revealed noText Appearing After Image:^Baim oi the ^^oxe^ THE KING PALM. 305 iiKire beautiful creation than this island king andhis sister palm, Oreodoxa, or Areca oleracea. Tothe general observer they seem in all points to re-semble each other. Like some stately column of ancient Greece, theKing Palm, two hundred feet high, is perfectly erect,and reveals, in the outline of its stem, swelling to-wards the centre, the subtle entasis of the Greek,expressive of strength. Out of this dark grey columna more slender shaft arises, perfectly smooth, and ofa delicate giass green; and from this the leaf stalksspring. Its pinnate leaves, with sword-shaped leaf-lets, are of noble size ; they grandly aspire upwards ;their extremities curl gracefully like a waving plume,and from the centre of them arises, like the point ofa spear, the leaf bud of an unexpanded leaf Theflowers are described by Humboldt as of silverywhiteness/ shining from afar. They issue fromspathes which are put forth at the junction of theleaf column and the stem ofNote About ImagesPlease note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.