86 THE PLANT WORLD 



inhabitants ; among others the coarse fibrous material borne at the base 

 of the petioles is manufactured into ropes, clothing, etc., which are very 

 durable as the fiber has the property of shedding water. This is also one 

 of the toddy and sago palms of that region. 



Near by is another of our native palm genera, Neowashingtonia, in 

 two species, N. filifera, the weeping palm, from southern California and 

 western Arizona, and N. robusta, from western Mexico. N. filifera 

 grows from 20 to 40 feet tall, the base diameter of the trunk measuring 

 2 to 3 feet. The old leaves are persistent, hanging down and entirely 

 concealing the upper part of the trunk in old specimens, and giving the 

 palm a very shaggy appearance. N. rohista is similar to this, but is 

 stouter and has shorter and more spiny petioles. 



Perhaps the rarest plant in the collection is the small one of Lodoicea 

 Sechellarnm. This was secured from Mr. Falconer, of Pittsburg, and 

 is one of several he succeeded in germinating, a feat, we believe, not 

 before accomplished in this country. Long before the discovery of the 

 tree itself, its fruit was found floating in the Indian Ocean, and from 

 this circumstance it derived its old name of Coco de Mer. The unknown 

 origin of these odd fruits gave rise to most astounding tales. One of 

 these was to the effect that the fruit was not a product of the land but of 

 the sea itself, and that it was produced by a tree growing in the ocean 

 and similar to the true cocoanut ; this was said to be visible upon the coast 

 of Sumatra, but immediately disappeared did any one dive down to inves- 

 tigate. This mystery of its origin and its scarcity made its fruit appear 

 to the native mind most valuable and to possess wonderful properties of 

 healing, and in one land a royal edict made punishment by death the 

 penalty for its possession by any but the king himself. The discovery in 

 1743, in the Seychelles Islands, of the palm which bore the fruit, put a stop 

 to all such tales, and its mystery gone the fruit soon lost all its reputed 

 healing properties and became an object of mere curiosity, or a convenient 

 article to be manufactured into necessary apparatus, such as receptacles 

 for carrying water, dishes, plates and other household utensils. The 

 fruit is often 18 inches long and sometimes weighs 40 or 50 pounds, and 

 requires about ten years to reach maturity. The tree attains a height of 

 80 to 90 feet. 



Mr. T. F. Sedgwick, Agriculturist of the Hawaii Experiment Station, 

 has just published a little pamphlet on " The Root Rot of Taro," pre- 

 pared under the direction of Mr. Jared G. Smith, director of the station. 

 Taro is a plant of the arum family, closely resembling the so-called 

 caladium or " elephant's ear " of our lawns. It is one of the most im- 

 portant of tropical crops, the large fleshy tubers being cooked and eaten 

 by the natives throughout Polynesia. The remedy suggested for the disease 

 by Mr. Sedgwick is to treat the soil with lime and to add fertilizers. 



