CHAMÆPITYS. See TEUCRIUM, Botany Index.

CHAMÆROPS. See Botany Index.

This plant the Americans call thatch, from the use to which the leaves are applied.—Under the name of palmetto, however, Mr Adanson describes a species of palm which grows naturally at Senegal, whose trunk rises from 50 to 60 feet in height: from the upper end of the trunk issues a bundle of leaves, which, in turning off, form a round head: each leaf represents a fan of five or six feet in expansion, supported by a tail of the same length. Of these trees some produce male flowers, which are consequently barren; others are female, and loaded with fruit, which succeed each other uninterruptedly almost the whole year round. The fruit of the large palmetos, Mr Adanson affirms to be of the bigness of an ordinary melon, but rounder: it is enveloped in two skins, as tough as leather, and as thick as strong parchment; within the fruit is yellowish, and full of filaments, fastened to three large kernels in the middle. The negroes are very fond of this fruit, which, when baked under the ashes, is said to taste like a quince.