Ivory, VEGETABLE.

Ivory, VEGETABLE. This curious material is furnished by the palm-like plant, Phytelephas macrocarpa, which grows on the Andean plains of Peru, and on the banks of the river Magdalena, and other parts of South America. It forms the type of a natural order, the Phytelephasæ, intermediate between the Palms and the Screw Pines (Pandaneæ). The plant throws up a magnificent tuft of light-green pinnated leaves of extraordinary size and beauty, like immense ostrich-feathers, rising from 30 to 40 feet in height. The fruit, which is as large as a man's head, consists of many 4-celled leathery drupes aggregated together, and contains numerous nuts of a somewhat triangular form, each nut being nearly as large as a hen's egg; they are called Corozo nuts in commerce. The kernels of these nuts when ripe are exceedingly hard and white, in fact they resemble ivory so completely that few names have ever been better applied than that of vegetable ivory. They are in extensive use by turners in the manufacture of buttons, umbrella-handles, and small trinkets. Two or three millions of these nuts are now imported into Britain annually, and are chiefly used by the London and Birmingham turners.—For another ivory substitute, see CELLULOID.