PALM^ 



109 



Florida, and along the Gulf coast to the mouth of the Appalachicola River; most 

 abundant and of its largest size on the west coast of the Florida peninsula. 



Occasionally cultivated for ornament in the cities of the south Atlantic states. 



2. Sabal Mesiicana, Mart. Palmetto. 



Leaves dark yellow-green and lustrous, 5-6 long, often 7 wide, divided nearly 

 to the middle into narrow divided segments, with thickened pale margins sepa- 



rating into long thin fibres, with ligules about 6' long, their petioles 7-8 long, 1^' 

 wide at the apex. Flowers : spadix 7-8 long, with stout ultimate divisions. 

 Flowers in Texas appearing in March or April in the axils of persistent bracts half 

 as long as the perianth. Fruit ripening early in the summer, globose, often 2 or 

 3-lobed; seeds nearly ^' broad and Y wide, dark chestnut-brown, with a broad shallow 

 basal cavity and a conspicuous orange-colored hilum. 



A tree, with a trunk 30-o0 high, often 2i in diameter, and a broad head of erect 

 ultimately pendulous leaves. Wood light, soft, pale brown tinged with red, with thick 

 light-colored rather inconspicuous fibro-vascular bundles, the outer rim V thick, soft, 

 and light-colored. On the Gulf coast the trunks are used for wharf -piles, and on the 

 lower Rio Grande the leaves for the thatch of houses. 



Distribution. Rich soil of the bottom-lands near the mouth of the Rio Grande 

 in Texas, and southward in Mexico in the neighborhood of the coast. Frequently 

 planted as a street tree in the towns on the lower Rio Grande. 



4. WASHINGTONIA. H. Wendl. 



Trees, with stout columnar stems and broad crowns of erect and spreading finally 

 pendulous leaves. Leaves flabellate, divided nearly to the middle into many narrow 

 deeply parted recurved segments separating on the margins into numerous slender 

 pale fibres ; rachises short, slightly rounded on the back, gradually narrowed from a 

 broad base, with concaved margins furnished below with narrow erect wings, and 

 slender and acute above; ligules elongated, oblong, thin and laciniate on the margins; 

 petioles elongated, broad and thin, flattened or slightly concave on the upper side, 

 rounded on the lower, armed irregularly with broad thin large and small straight 

 or hooked spines confluent iuto a thin bright orange-colored cartilaginous margin, 



