200 Mr Robert Lindsay on some of the Palms 



for thirteen years. This house being only 18 feet high at 

 back and 7 feet in front, it was greatly hampered." As- 

 suming the Pctlm to have been only 16 feet high when 

 removed from this lean-to house in 1835, it has thus made 

 20 feet 4 inches in fifty years, to attain its present height 

 of 3G feet 4 inches. This is equal to an increase of nearly 

 5 inches per aimum. If the same ratio be applied to the 

 16 feet formed previous to 1835, that WTjuld give the age 

 of our tree as being over eighty-eight years. We know, 

 however, that while young this species of Sabal makes 

 very slow progress. For the first eight or ten years it 

 produces long, simple, undivided leaves, after which it 

 assumes the more or less divided palmate leaves character- 

 istic of the adult plant. The seeds are consequently not 

 in demand by nurserymen and others who require plants 

 that will have a showy appearance quickly. Many species 

 of Palms, Livistona, Seafortlda, Chamcedorea^ and others, 

 assume their characteristic adult foliage, though in minia- 

 ture, in three to four years from the time of sowdng 

 the seed, and then make useful plants for decorative pur- 

 poses, whereas Sabal umhraculifcra requires from sixteen 

 to twenty years to become in any way effective. 



A seedling from our Bull Palm, raised certainly not less 

 than eighteen years ago, is now 6 feet high, measured to 

 the tip of the leaf, and has 7 inches of stem. This is the 

 largest of our young plants, and has thus increased at the 

 rate of 4 inches per annum. Assuming that the old plant 

 increased at the same rate while forming its first 6 feet of 

 growth, and allowing the remaining 10 feet to have increased 

 at the same rate which the plant has made during the last 

 fifty years, viz., 5 inches per annum, this would give 

 ninety-two years as the lowest approximate age of our tree. 



Regarding some of the younger Palms which have not 

 been measured hitherto, the largest is a fine plant of Euterpe 

 edulis. It is now 47 feet 6 inches in height. It has a clear 

 stem of 34 feet 9 inches, and the circumference at the base 

 is 1 foot 10| inches. This plant has made very rapid pro- 

 gress. It was removed from the east range of houses fifteen 

 years ago, and was from 12 to 13 feet higli at that time. It 

 was then growing in an earthenware pot 16 inches wide, 

 and is now in a tub 5 feet wide, by 3 feet 10 inches deep. 



