Great Age of Palmetto frees.

Manawatu Herald, 5 August 1897, Page 3

Great Age of Palmetto frees.

It is well-known fact that some trees live to a great age, elm, cedar, hickory, &c, but the palmetto trees Of the south, and particularly those along the Indian River, Elorida, aye tfeally a curiosity <or their long life. The older trees are gracefully straight, about 40fc. or 50H. high, having a diameter of Bin. to 10in. t and so smooth that they look as "if they had been 3haved with a carpenter's draw knife up to about Bft. of the green spreading fan leaves, which form at op without a single branch. They are from 800 to 600 years old, according to their height, and are so tough that they will bend almost to the ground in a gale of tfindj then spring back to their normal position again. Rola'tiv'es of mine who have resided on the Indian River for the past thirty years, say that the trees have not grown more than 6ft. in that time. A curious fact about the " cabbage palmetto," as it is called, is that it grows only from the top, having a cabbage- like head, which, whe.n young, is a palatable food for man or beast, and if a rifle ball were to penetrate the centre of it, the tree would die. Any amount of hacking or girdling may ba done to the trunk, however, without injury to the tree, as the nourishment from the root 3 passes through the thickly-matted fibre the entire thickness of the body to -the head at the apex of the tree.—" Public Opinion."