The fan-leaved palm. Sp. palmito.
1555. Theyr drynke is eyther water or the iuse that droppeth from the cut braunches of the barren date trees cauled Palmites.—R. Eden, ‘Decades’ (1885), p. 387 (Stanford Dict.).
1583. Forget not also to bring the kernels and seeds of strange plants with you, the Palmito with his fruit inclosed in him.—Hakluyt’s ‘Voyages,’ p. 188. (N.E.D.)
[Many examples, 1565, 1598, 1601, 1613, 1621, &c. in the above-named dictionaries.]
1775. A small hut covered with thatch of palmittos, or bark of trees, is always preferable to the lumber of a tent.—B. Romans, ‘Florida,’ p. 189.
1776. This is a tree [palmetto] peculiar to the southern states, which grows from twenty to forty feet high without branches, and then terminates in something resembling the head of a cabbage. The wood is remarkably spongy. A bullet entering it makes no extended fracture, but buries itself without injuring the parts adjacent.—W. Gordon, ‘Hist. Am. Revol.,’ ii. 280 (Lond., 1788).
1861. He took the position and threw up a temporary battery with palmetto logs and sand.—Mr. Jefferson Davis in the U.S. Senate, Jan. 10: Cong. Globe, p. 308/1.
1861. On the rugged highways toward the city of Mexico was heard the steady tread of the Palmetto boy and the Pennsylvania volunteer, side by side and shoulder to shoulder.—Mr. William Bigler of Pa., U.S. Senate, Jan. 21: id., p. 489/3.
1862. Tom O’Connor … had the Palmetto secession badge pinned upon the left lappel of his coat.—Examination of W. G. Brownlow before the U.S. Senate, June 26: id., p. 2948/1.
