- Thy fragrant shade to beautify the scene.
- But, chief of palms, and pride of Indian-groves,
- Thee, fair palmeto,1 should her song resound:
- What swelling columns, form’d by Jones or Wren,2
- Or great Palladio,3 may with thee compare? [525]
- Not nice-proportion’d, but of size immense,
- Swells the wild fig-tree, and should claim her lay:
- For, from its numerous bearded twigs proceed
- A filial train, stupendous as their sire,
- In quick succession; and, o’er many a rood,4 [530]
- Extend their uncouth limbs; which not the bolt
- Of heaven can scathe; nor yet the all-wasting rage
VER. 523. palmeto,] This being the most beautiful of palms, nay, perhaps, superior to any other known tree in the world, has with propriety obtained the name of Royal. The botanical name is Palma Maxima. It will shoot up perpendicularly to an hundred feet and more. The stem is perfectly circular; only towards the root, and immediately under the branches at top, it bulges out. The bark is smooth, and of an ash-brown colour, except at the top where it is green. It grows very fast, and the seed from whence it springs is not bigger than an acorn. In this, as in all the palm-genus, what the natives call Cabbage is found; but it resembles in taste an almond, and is in fact the pith of the upper, or greenish part of the stem. But it would be the most unpardonable luxury to cut down so lovely a tree, for so mean a gratification; especially as the wild, or mountain cabbage tree, sufficiently supplies the table with that esculent. I never ride past the charming vista of royal palms on the Cayon-estate of Daniel Mathew, Esq; in St. Christopher,5 without being put in mind of the pillars of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra.6 This tree grows on the tops of hills, as well as in valleys; its hard cortical part makes very durable laths for houses.7 There is a smaller species not quite so beautiful.
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Grainger is referring to what he calls elsewhere the royal palm. ↩︎
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Inigo Jones (1573-1652) was an English architect and theatre designer. Christopher Wren (1632-1723) was an English architect, mathematician, and astronomer. ↩︎
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Andrea Palladio (1508-1580), an Italian architect. ↩︎
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A rod, a unit used for measuring land approximately 5 1/2 yards (5.03 meters) in length. ↩︎
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Mathew (1718-1777) was a cousin of Grainger’s wife. Mathew’s Cayon estate was in Saint Mary’s parish on the eastern shore of St. Kitts. ↩︎
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Also known as the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, an ancient city in Syria. ↩︎
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Grainger is saying its bark can be used to make laths or strips of wood used in building. ↩︎