“The direction of the leaves is a no less important characteristic than their form and colour. The leaflets (foliola) are either ranged in a comb-like manner close to one another, with a stiff parenchyma (as in _Cocos Phœnix_), to which they owe the beautiful reflections of solar light that play over the surface of the leaves, which shine with a brilliant verdure in _Cocos_, and with a fainter and ashy-coloured hue in the date-palm; or sometimes the foliage assumes a reed-like appearance, having a thinner and more flexible texture, and being curled near the extremity (as in _Jagua_, _Palma Real del Sinu_, _Palma Real de Cuba_, and _Piritu del Orinoco_). This direction of the leaves, together with the lofty stem, gives to the palms their character of high majesty. It is a characteristic of the physiognomical beauty of the palm that its leaves are directed aspiringly upwards throughout the whole period of its duration, (and not only in the youth of the tree, as is the case with the Date-Palm, which is the only one introduced into Europe.) The more acute the angle made by the leaves with the upper part of the stem (that is, the nearer they approach the perpendicular,) the grander and nobler is the form of the tree. How different is the aspect of the pendent leaves of the _Palma de Covija del Orinoco y de los Llanos de Calabozo_ (Corypha tectorum), from the more horizontal leaves of the Date and Cocoa-nut palms, and the lofty heavenward-pointing branches of the _Jagua_, the _Cucurito_, and _Pirijao_.