The Church of England Magazine - Volume 10, No. 263, January 9, 1841

their formation. The consideration of the means by which they are formed, and the direct consequences of their formation on the air, by abstracting certain elements from it, and supplying others, belong to the subject of leaves; it is the object of the present paper to view them as formed, and to show their amazing utility.

The mechanical properties of the stems of trees, both exogenous and endogenous, render them extremely serviceable to mankind. The uses to which a single species of plant may be put are numerous and important, of which the reed (arundo phragmites) is an example, for after the root has assisted in binding and consolidating the soil, the stem is susceptible of the most varied applications[A].

In a low state of civilization the palm, or a palm-like grass, supplies all that man requires; of the former of which, the Mauritia flexuosa, or sago-palm of the Oronooko, and still more the cocos nucifera, or cocoa-nut palm; and of the latter, the bamboo