Vegetable Ivory

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Apr 28, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 17.

THE plant yielding the vegetable ivory is known to botanists as Phytelephas macrocarpa. It is a native of South America, found chiefly along the Magdalena River, in Colombia. It is a stemless, palm-like plant the top of which is crowned with from twelve to twenty very long leaves.

The fruit consists of a conglomerated head of six or seven sections, the whole being enclosed in a woody covering, forming altogether a globe as large as a man's head. A single plant sometimes bears six or eight of these heads, each weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds. When young they contain a milk-like fluid, which, with age, hardens until it becomes valuable as a substitute for real ivory.