| 释义 |
ˈcabbage-tree
[f. cabbage n.1 1, 2.]
1. A name given to several palm trees, whose central unexpanded mass of leaves or terminal bud is eaten like the head of a cabbage; esp.
a. The West Indian tree, Areca or Oreodoxa oleracea, also called cabbage-palm and Palmetto Royal, growing to a height of 150 or 200 feet.
b. Chamærops Palmetto of the Southern U.S.
c. Euterpe oleracea of Brazil and ? W. Indies.
d. Livistona inermis of Northern Australia.
e. Corypha australis of Australia, the leaves of which are made into baskets, hats, etc.
1725Sloane Jamaica II. 110 This is most evident in the top of that called the Cabbage tree. 1756P. Browne Jamaica 342 The Barbadoes Cabbage Tree..is the most beautiful tree I have ever seen, and may be esteemed the queen of the woods. 1779Forrest Voy. N. Guinea 123 We..saw many aneebong or cabbage trees growing on the island. 1796Morse Amer. Geog. I. 677 (S. Carolina) The palmetto or cabbage tree, the utility of which, in the construction of forts was experienced during the late war.
2. Other trees and plants, so called for various trivial reasons, as the cabbage-bark tree, Andira inermis of the West Indies; a palm-like liliaceous plant of New Zealand, Cordyline indivisa, bearing a head of narrow leaves. bastard or black c. t., Andira inermis (see above);—of St. Helena: Melanodendron integrifolium;—of South America: the leguminous genus Geoffroya. Canary Island c. t., Cacolia kleinia nervifolia, a composite plant. small umbelled c. t., Commidendron spurium. (Miller Plant Names, 1884.)
1796Stedman Surinam II. xxiii. 164 The black-cabbage tree, the wood of which..is in high estimation among carpenters and joiners. 1848T. Arnold Let. 26 Apr. (1966) 41 There is a certain stiffness in the appearance of a New Zealand forest..but some of the trees and shrubs are very beautiful... There is the cabbage-tree [etc.]. 1884Gordon-Cumming in Century Mag. XXVII. 920 The settlers with strange perversity have dubbed this the cabbage-tree. 1905W. B. Where White Man Treads 145 Then the engine would..show off its paces to an admiring cluster of ancient cabbage trees. 1930L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs iv. 65 Cabbage trees only grow thick on good land. 1935‘J. Guthrie’ Little Country xxvii. 390 In the clump of cabbage trees..one palm, alas, had been blown down by the fierce southerly gale. 1967N.Z. Listener 29 Sept. 10/1 A New Zealand play without sentimentality, brashness or cabbage trees.
3. attrib., as in cabbage-tree hat (ellipt., cabbage-tree); cabbage-tree worm, a fat grub found in the decaying cabbage tree eaten in Guiana.
1880Blackw. Mag. Feb. 167 The chin-straps of their cabbage-tree hats. Ibid. 171 Raising his cabbage-tree, allowed the chin-strap to drop to its place. 1796Stedman Surinam II. 23 Groe-groe, or cabbage-tree worms, as they are called in Surinam..In taste they partake of all the spices of India..these worms are produced in all the palm-trees, when beginning to rot. 1905W. B. Where White Man Treads 297 A hurrying woman in a man's soiled cabbage-tree hat. 1908E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beach-Comber ii. iii. 314 A stock-rider..in a..cabbage-tree hat. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country i. 2 He flung off his streaming oilskin and shook the water from his wide-brimmed cabbage-tree hat, with its bobbing corklets attached as fly chasers. |