boiled again, to drive out the water. The average yield is a quart of oil from a hundred nuts. The oil is said to be superior to coconut-oil, a pint of it giving as much light, or rather burning as long, as a quart of the latter.[51] It is not probable that the manufacture will pay in the presence of the more tractable coconut. As the cohune grows older, the hitherto persistent leaf-stems drop, the scars disappear, and the smooth stem rises thirty to fifty feet clear to the crown of leaves at the summit. [Illustration: CHOCUN PALMS.] The pimento-palm has a small cinnamon-colored stem much used for house building, as is also the poknoboy (_Bactris balanoidea_). The warree cohune (_Bactris cohune_), armed with spines, bears an edible nut much easier to crack than the larger fruit of the attalea. The cabbage-palm (_Oreodoxa oleracea_) is common in the upper valleys, and the base of the leaf is a very poor cabbage, nor is it eaten to any extent. In the forests the pacaya (_Euterpe edulis_) is a slender tree, the unexpanded flower-buds being the edible part; and these are on sale in the market-places tied in neat and attractive bundles. In taste it is rather insipid. On the ridges the _Acrocomia sclerocarpa_ flourishes; its stem is, like the warree cohune, armed with formidable spines, which serve as pins, needles, and awls. The _Acrocomia vinifera_ also is common in the valley of the Motagua. Along the river-banks the _Desmoncus_, a climbing palm, is very common and very troublesome to the explorer; but it shows such a curious adaptation of parts to special ends that its bad qualities may be overlooked by the naturalist. It is generally understood that in the foliage of palms the palmate form is the earlier, and that the growth or development of the midrib results in a pinnate or feather form. This is seen to be the case in the coco-palm, where the first leaves are palmate or fan-shaped; but when the palm is a few months old it puts off these childish garments and dons the toga virilis in the pinnate form. In the desmoncus the development does not stop with the mere lengthening of the midrib, but transforms the leaflets at the end into claws to aid the limp stem to climb into sunlight. Here is a leaf-tip to show how this is done; the ribs of the leaflets, instead of expanding into thin blades, have thickened and bent backward to serve as the barbs of an arrow and allow motion in one direction only. The leaf can push the stiffly bent fingers through the thick foliage, where they stick fast and hold up the stem. The rattan-palm (_Calamus rotang_) of the East Indies climbs over the trees in a similar way. The Guatemalan climber bears a small cluster of spiny but edible nuts. The graceful little Chamaedoreas may be found in flower or fruit at almost any season of the year, and their slender stems make good walking-sticks. The confra (_Manicaria Plukenetii_), so useful for thatching, grows only near the sea, usually in clumps of five or more.