Palomides

“ Now the puzzle was, how the palm got there. Naturally one would suppose that a seed of the palm had been deposited on the top of the banyan, and had there germinated and thrown out its fronds.
But how did the palm seed get to the top of the fig? Was it planted by the hand of man? or carried thither by a bird? It could not well have been by the latter mode—since the fruit of the palmyra is as large as a child’s head, and each one of the three seeds it contains as big as a goose’s egg!! No bird would be likely to carry about such a bulky thing as that. ”

“ But all had lapsed again into forest. A group of enormous Palmistes stands on a plateau, flat, and yet lofty and healthy. The soil is exceeding fertile. There are wells and brooks of pure water all around. The land slopes down for hundreds of feet in wooded gorges, full of cedar and other admirable timber, with Palmistes towering over them everywhere. Far away lies the lowland; and every breeze of heaven sweeps over the crests of the hills. So one peculiarly tall palm was chosen for a central landmark, an ornament to the town square such as no capital in Europe can boast. ”

“ No sooner have the seeds of that plant become black, or fully ripe, than the Florida Jay 445 makes them almost its sole food for a time, and wherever a patch of these troublesome plants are to be seen, there also is the Jay to be met with. I have called the Palmetto a troublesome plant, because its long, narrow, and serrated leaves are so stiff, and grow so close together, that it is extremely difficult to walk among them, the more so that it usually grows in places where the foot is seldom put without immediately sinking in the mire to a depth of several inches. ”

“ The Pampean formation, judging from its similar composition, and from the apparent absolute specific identity of some of its mammiferous remains, and from the generic resemblance of others, belongs over its vast area—throughout Banda Oriental, Entre Rios, and the wide extent of the Pampas as far south as the Colorado,—to the same geological epoch. The mammiferous remains occur at all depths from the top to the bottom of the deposit ”

“ As for Palamon, when he saw that Arcite was gone, he made [pg 186] the great tower walls re-echo with his howls of misery. The very fetters on his ankles were wet with his salt tears.
"Alas," he groaned, "Arcite, my cousin, thou hast borne off the prize in this strife of ours! Thou walkest now at liberty in Thebes. Little thou thinkest of me and of my sorrow! Strong thou art, and wise. Doubtless thou art even now gathering together the people of Thebes to invade this land and win the sister of the Duke for thy wife, while I die here in this prison like a caged lion. ”

“ The Phœnix paludosa, a dwarf slender-stemmed date-palm, from six to eight feet high, is the all-prevalent feature, covering the whole landscape with a carpet of feathery fronds of the liveliest green. The species is eminently gregarious, more so than any other Indian palm, and presents so dense a mass of foliage, that when seen from above, the stems are wholly hidden. ”

“ The leaves are large and pinnate, the leaflets elongate and linear, and as well as the petioles very prickly. The spadices are simply branched, and the fruits are ovate or globose, with a fibrous or fleshy covering, sometimes eatable.
Sixteen species of these Palms are known, inhabiting Mexico, Brazil, and other parts of South America, but not extending higher up the mountains than 2000 feet above the sea. They have rather a repulsive aspect, from almost every part,—stem, leaves, fruit-stalk and spathe, being armed with acute spines in some cases a foot long. ”

“ A flock of them will take possession of a Palmyra palm; and so effectually can they crouch and conceal themselves among the leaves that, on the slightest alarm, the whole party becomes invisible in an instant. ”

“ She would save him that added burden. Three miles from the mission, the road swung up a gentle grade between two long rows of ancient and neglected palms. The dead, withered fronds of a decade still clung to the corrugated trunks. In the adjoining oaks vast flocks of crows perched and cawed raucously. This avenue of palms presently debouched onto a little mesa, oak-studded and covered with lush grass, which gave it a pretty, parklike effect. In the center of this mesa stood the hacienda of the Rancho Palomar. ”

“ Palpi externally white, but internally black. Tongue curled up. Breast black, the sides being blue. Legs black. Thighs white within, and blue without. Abdomen, next the thorax, white; the remainder being black, with four white spots on each side; that next the anus being the smallest. Wings as on the upper side; except the anterior, which have a yellowish border running along the posterior edges. The extremity of the body of the male is furnished with a villose tail, as long as the body. ”

“ The Palm family is divided into upwards of sixty genera, comprising more than a thousand species: the greater number are inhabitants of tropical countries. Stems, with the external surface and internal structure preserved, and the foliage, and fruit, of several kinds of Palms, have been found in a fossil state, and chiefly in the Tertiary formations. ”

“ Its absence here reminded us of the difficulty we found in getting a calabash of milk on the great cattle farms of the llanos.
At twelve hundred meters above sea level the palm family begins to lose its importance, although graceful representatives continue to charm the traveler until he reaches much higher altitudes. But one is, in a measure, reconciled to the disappearance of palms, that so delighted one in the lowlands, by the marvelous display made on all sides by countless species of the convolvulus and gesnerwort families. ”

“ And in summer, the winds which as they pass over the deserts are indeed like the breath of a furnace, long before they reach the city change to a cool and refreshing breeze by traversing as they do the vast tracts of cultivated ground, which, as I have already told you, surround the capital to a very great extent on every side. Palmyra is the very heaven of the body. Every sense is fed to the full with that which it chiefly covets. ”

“ Over this again rose the grey limbs of the tupeloo-tree (nyssa aquatica) , with light leaves and thin foliage. The beautiful palmetto (chamaerops) lifted its fan-like branches, as if to screen the earth from the hot sun that poured down upon it, and here and there its singular shapes were shadowed in the water. ”

“ We may conclude, therefore, that they possess some hidden means of protection, which makes it useful to other insects to be mistaken for them.
The Papilios which resemble them belong to a very distinct section of the genus, in which the sexes differ greatly; and it is those females only which differ most from the males, and which have already been alluded to as exhibiting instances of dimorphism, which resemble species of the other group. ”

“ Malacca, Singapore (Wall.) , China, India, Ceylon.
The continental specimens of P. Pammon have all considerably developed tails in both sexes; the insular specimens on the other hand, (which I treat as a separate species) , have only a prominent tooth or very short tail in the males. The females also differ considerably, presenting an analogous but distinct series of forms. In the true P. Pammon the males are very constant; but the females exist under three distinct forms, each of them presenting more or less numerous varieties, viz.:—
1st form of female. ”

“ The gradual increase or decrease continually going on in many species about us is little remarked; but the sudden infrequent appearance in vast numbers of large and comparatively rare species is regarded by most people as a very wonderful phenomenon, not easily explained. On the pampas, whenever grasshoppers, mice, frogs or crickets become excessively abundant we confidently look for the appearance of multitudes of the birds that prey on them. ”

“ Note.—The lines are sometimes lengthened until certain years of our life, while others are shortened. At one time they may become pale, at another they become notably clear and red. The minor marks, such as are found on the mounts, sometimes quite vanish, and at other times they will assume different shapes and colours. Therefore the most studious in palmistry cannot attain a complete knowledge of the events of a life at once, because they come and go as nature, or the circumstances of life, change and twist, but can only read for a year or so in advance. ”

“ The extraordinary prolongation of the last joint of the palpi, and the white borderless spots beneath, which are never silvered, will distinguish this species through all the variations; in the ground colour of its wings, which in no two specimens are exactly alike, and one before me is nearly white; the lesser snowy dot is sometimes very obscure, and often wanting; but the prolongation of the palpi is even expressed in Cramer's figure above quoted. ”

“ Pamela sat down on a gorsy hump, and looked towards Ramsworthy and Netheroot sands. She could not see them because of the fog. Nor could she see any sail. It was profoundly lonely, except for the sea-birds which kept up a constant wailing cry. They had noticed a human being appear on the scene, and instantly rose in whity-grey clouds, crying and screaming, circling round and round uneasily. ”

“ Palamon looked fiercely at him and said, "Little honor to thee then! Hast thou forgotten thine oath of truest brotherhood to me, and mine to thee? Hast thou forgotten thy promise to help me in all I do? How, then, canst thou dream of claiming to love my lady? This thou shalt not do, false Arcite! I loved her first, and told thee, and thou must help me to win her if ever we escape. ”

“ They are of world-wide distribution; but Solarium and Phorus are tropical; while Lacuna, Skenea, and most species of Rissoa are Northern. About 180 species are fossil, ranging from the Permian to the Pliocene formations.
Family 13.—PALUDINIDÆ. (4 Genera, 217 Species.)
Distribution.—The Paludinidæ, or River-snails, are all fresh-water, and range over the whole world. Paludina (60 sp.) , is confined to the Northern Hemisphere; Ampullaria (136 sp.) , is tropical; Amphibola (3 sp.) , inhabits New Zealand and the Pacific Islands; Valvata (18 sp.) , North America and Britain. ”

“ This is, then, the sun whom Palamas worships as a god. It is a sun who possesses all the beauty and power of the actual source of light, but who, at the same time, by the spell of mystic symbolism rises to the splendor of a thrice-fair and almighty divinity containing all that is beautiful and noble and powerful in the world. Upon such a sun he seeks to find a light-flooded palace for his child in the "Mourning Song." To such a sun he offers his hymns and prayers; and such a sun he conceives as a vengeful blood-fed Moloch or a muse of light. ”

“ The reason why I entertain this belief is, that in all cases where similar guesses have been hazarded—whether with regard to plants, or birds, or mammalia—they have eventually proved far below the mark; and as the palm countries are the very regions of the earth least known and least explored by botanists, it is but reasonable to conclude that great numbers of species have never yet been described, nor even seen. Another fact which strengthens this probability is, that peculiar species of palms are sometimes found only in a limited district, and nowhere else in the same country. ”

“ Mr Darwin's interest was excited by the evidences everywhere present of the immensity of this extinct population. "The number of the remains imbedded in the great estuary-deposit which forms the Pampas, and covers the gigantic rocks of Banda Oriental, must be extraordinarily great. I believe a straight line drawn in any direction through the Pampas would cut through some skeleton or bones.... We may suppose that the whole area of the Pampas is one wide sepulchre of these extinct gigantic quadrupeds." ”

“ Milliners, unlike Oracles and Sybils, have each their personal human span with its joys and fears, pleasures, pains and triumphs. Pamela’s romance ran like a cherry-coloured thread through the warp and woof of those other existences, so far above her, in which her profession had involved her. To show the whole pattern, light and dark, sparkling and deep-hued, flowered, dotted, arabesqued, of this brocade of earthly life, the poor Modiste must assume as important a place as that of her clientele. ”

“ The male is distinguished by a black central spot on the anterior wings. The very remarkable prolongation of the palpi, which are alike in both sexes, induces us to consider this insect as a type of form, or in other words, a sub-genus: but we are at present unprepared to state any thing satisfactory on its true affinities. ”

“ Palomas is a small village, with little to recommend it save that it is picturesquely situated in a pass —Cañon de las Palomas (Pass of the Doves) — in the Sierra Madre Mountains, which here separate the valley of Saltillo from the table-lands leading to San Luis Potosi. It has a thousand inhabitants, consisting for the most
A PICTURESQUE TRAVELER.
part of persons employed in the cotton factory, the leading industry, shepherds and laborers on the adjacent farms. ”

“ Palpi, legs, breast, and abdomen grey. Wings blueish flesh-colour, with a line crossing them, rising at a small distance from the tips, ending a little above the abdominal corners, the external part of it being brown. A small eye is placed near the tips of the superior ones, having a black and yellow iris and white pupil. Five eyes of the same kind are also placed on the inferior ones along the external edges. ”