Identifier: naturalhistoryof01kern (find matches)
Title: The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Kerner von Marilaun, Anton, 1831-1898 Oliver, Francis Wall, 1864- Macdonald, Mary Frances Ewart Busk, Marian Balfour, Lady
Subjects: Botany
Publisher: London, Blackie
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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the estimation of the heights of mountains. An isolated mountainpeak rising up abruptly is, at first sight, always thought to be higher than acontinuous ridge which gradually ascends in gentle slopes, although both mayhave exactly the same elevation; and the same thing occurs in estimating theheight of stems. An isolated Palmyra Palm rising from among low shrubsappears to be much higher than one which is actually taller, but which grows inthe midst of a group of trees and whose summit only rises a little above theother tree-crowns. The highest columnar caudex is shown by Ceroxylon andicola,a palm growing in the Andes, of which stems are known 57 metres in length.The caudex of the Cocoa-nut Palm (Gocos nucifera) attains a height of 32 metres,and that of the Palmyra Palm (Borassus fiabelliformis), not far behind thelast, 30 metres. Most other palms are lower than this, the great majoritynever exceeding 30 metres. The so-called Dwarf Palm (GhaDiOirops humilis) is ERECT FOLIAGE STEMS, 718
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Fig. 172.—Bamboos In Java. (From a photograph.) 714 ERECT FOLIAGE STEMS. only 4 metres high, and there even exist palms whose caudex barely rises abovethe ground. The caudex of tree-ferns and cycads also remains comparatively short. Whentravellers speak of the gigantic trunks of tree-ferns, they only mean gigantic incomparison with the stems of the ferns growing in our European forests, whicheither never appear above the ground, or like those of the ostrich fern (Struthiop-teris germanica), only 10 cm. above the soil. The New Zealand tree-fern Licksoniaantarctica, with a diameter of 40 cm. reaches a height of 15 metres, and the caudexof Alsophila excelsa, with a thickness of 60 cm., is 22 metres high. The cycadsscarcely ever reach this height, nor do the various other flowering plants possessinga caudex, such as the species of the genera Yucca, Draccena, Urania, Pandanus,Aloe, and Xauthorrhoea. The celebrated Dragon-tree (Draccena Draco) of Orotava,whose age is estimated to be 6000

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