Among the most singular products of palm trees are the resins and wax produced by some species. The fruits of a species of _Calamus_ of the Eastern Archipelago are covered with a resinous substance of a red colour, which, in common with a similar product from some other trees, is the Dragon’s blood of commerce, and is used as a pigment, for varnish, and in the manufacture of tooth powder. The _Ceroxylon andicola_, a lofty palm growing in the Andes of Bogotá, produces a resinous wax which is secreted in its stem and used by the inhabitants of the country for making candles and for other purposes. Again, in some of the northern provinces of Brazil is found a palm tree called Carnaúba, the _Copernicia cerifera_, having the underside of its leaves covered with white wax, which has no admixture of resin, but is as pure as that procured from our hives. The leaves of palms, however, are applied to the greatest variety of uses; thatch for houses, umbrellas, hats, baskets and cordage in countless varieties are made from them, and every tropical country possesses some species adapted to these varied purposes, which in temperate zones are generally supplied by a very different class of plants. The Chip, or Brazilian-grass hats, so cheap in this country, are made from the leaves of a palm tree which grows in Cuba, whence they are imported for the purpose: the palm is the _Chamærops argentea_; and in Sicily an allied species, the _Chamærops humilis_ (the only European palm), is applied in a similar manner to form hats, baskets, and a variety of useful articles. The papyrus of the ancient Egyptians, and the metallic plates on which other nations wrote, were not used in India, but their place was supplied by the leaves of palms, on whose hard and glossy surface the characters of the Pali and Sanscrit languages were inscribed with a metallic point. The leaves of the _Corypha taliera_ are used for this purpose, and when strung together, form the volumes of a Hindu library. A favourite stimulant too of the Malays is furnished by a palm. The fruit of the _Areca catechu_ is the betelnut, which they chew with lime, and which is their substitute for the opium of the Chinese, the tobacco of Europeans, and the coca of the South Americans. One of the most recent introductions into our own domestic economy is the fibre of a palm, the Piassaba, which is now generally used for coarse brooms and brushes; and in the valley of the Amazon, of which it is a native, the same material is manufactured into cables, which are cheap and very durable in the water.