WINDOW GARDENING. 



261 



and produced abundantly, and the latter is a dark bronze of medium size, com- 

 bined with an erect habit. If grown well it is very fine for the table. 



Cultivation and Care of Palms for the House and Conservatory. 



A few years ago the opinion was general, that palms were not only difficult in 

 cultivation, but on account of their size, requiring a large space, only suitable for 

 a big greenhouse and not at all for parlor decoration. Palms in the mind of peo- 

 ple were imagined to be of im- 

 mense size. For instance : the In- 

 dian Palmyra and Talipot palms, 

 the slender high growing Cocos of 

 the islands in the Indian Ocean 

 and the Pacific Ocean, the grace- 

 ful Sugar and Areca palms, or 

 the Palma Real, in Cuba. So it 

 happened that after some descrip- 

 tions of our celebrated travelers, 

 the cultivation of palms was 

 nearly left untried. "Kings 

 among the grasses," as Alex, 

 von Humboldt relates in his 

 "Views about Nature," how in 

 South America the slender tops 

 of several species reach above the 

 highest trees of the forest. Ad- 

 miration for gloiious growth of 

 the greater number of palms for- 

 bade the introduction into our 

 small gardens and parlors, while 

 the form of palms of pinnatisect 

 fronds with fan or umbrella- 

 shaped fronds, like Corypha and 

 Chamaerops, Trinax, Mauritia 

 and Sabal species called to great 



interest and induced to a study jPig. 12. Begonia, grown ou bracket 



of the physiognomy of them. Consequently numerous kinds of species came 

 into trade and were civilized in our greenhouses. If we take in consideration 

 how very few kinds of palms (in Linnaeus time) were known (about 

 40 species), and how the lively period of culture of palms begins about 25 years 

 ago, and how during this time nearly 400 species were cultivated in European 

 Gardens, we comprehend clearly that palms are not difficult to cultivate, many 

 of them even fit for small arrangement. Induced by Alexander von Humboldt, 

 it was tried first to stud}"^ their finding places and distribution in the primitive 

 forests, in the Littorals and on the plateaus of the Andes, and according to (his 



