The stem of the fan palm is straight, cylindrical, smooth, and as tall as a ship's mast. Its _leaves_ are upwards of six yards in length, and four yards wide; and form altogether a head of twelve or thirteen yards in diameter. These leaves, which, when dry, fold up somewhat like a fan, are used for the covering of huts and cottages; and not unfrequently by soldiers, instead of canvas, for the construction of tents. One of them is sufficiently large to shelter twenty persons from the rays of the sun. They are also a kind of natural paper on which the inhabitants write, by means of a sharp-pointed iron instrument, which leaves indelible marks upon them. Many of the books which are shown in Europe for those of Egyptian papyrus (26) are said to be formed of parts of these leaves.--The _pith_ of the trunk, beaten into a kind of paste and mixed with water, is formed into cakes, and constitutes a species of bread, very serviceable to the inhabitants in times of scarcity. The _juice_ of some parts of the tree is used as an emetic. The fan palms are said not to bear fruit until they are near forty years old; but after this period, when in perfection, they produce annually more than twenty thousand _berries_ each. These are each about 1½ inch diameter, of globular shape, smooth, green, and fleshy; but are not known to be of any use. 110. _The ROTANG or DRAGON'S BLOOD TREE, is a species of cane_ (Calamus rotang) _which grows to the length of more than a hundred feet, is about as thick as a man's arm, and is closely beset with erect prickles._ _This cane has at the top a tuft of leaves which are several feet in length, and alternately winged, and of which the leaflets are sword-shaped, and armed with sharp spines._ In consequence of its great length and slender form, the rotang tree (which is usually found in woods near rivers, and in morassy places) does not grow entirely upright; but, after having attained the height of five or six yards, it depends, for support, upon other trees, which it sometimes overruns, in nearly an horizontal direction to the extent of sixty or eighty feet. The flowers are produced in upright spikes that separate into long spreading branches, and are succeeded by a red and somewhat egg-shaped fruit, which to the taste is pleasantly acid.