SLAVES WHO STOLE SEEDS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

SLAVES WHO STOLE SEEDS.

The beautiful Botanic Gardens in Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, contain over 50,000 specimen* of vegetation. The chief attraction, however, is the great Palm Avenue. The main avenue is nearly half a, mile long, and this is crossed by a shorter avenue.

In the former there are about 14l> palms, averaging 80 feet in height, and tho Latter contains about the same

number of palms, but only 70 feet in height.

The Mother Palm of Brazil is 1L > feet high, and its greatest diameter ’s 4ft. 3in. It was planted in 1809 by Dom Joao, and it was the first one grown in Brazil. It was decreed at the . ime that every seed from the palm should h** carefully saved, and alter the avenue was completed the remainder of the seeds should be uurnt. The slave*, however, vh j then worked in the gardens, stole large numbers of the seeds and sold them, and the palm was thus propagated throughout Brazil.