PALMACEAE 243 



PALMACEAE. PALM FAMILY. 



Commonly trees with fibrous roots and columnar unbranched trunks covered 

 rith leaf-scars or the bases of leaf-stalks and bearing a tuft of large leaves at 

 immit. Leaves sharply plaited when young, eventually tearing more or less 

 long the lines of the folds. Flowers minute, commonly monoecious, in ours 

 jerfect, borne in a large inflorescence enclosed by a spathe. Perianth in two 

 circles, an outer 3-lobed calyx and an inner 3-parted corolla. Stamens 6, inserted 

 the corolla-tube. Carpels 3, separate or united, each 1-ovuled. Fruit a berry, 

 ipe or nut. Genera 128 and species about 1200, almost entirely in the tropics. 



1. WASHINGTONIA Wendl. FAN PALM. 



Trees with fan-shaped much folded blades and long petioles armed with stout 

 looked spines along the margins. Pistil 1; ovary 3-celled; style and stigma 1. 

 I'ruit a berry. Species 3, Southern and Lower California and Sonora. 



Bibliog. Parish, S. B., California Palms (Card. & For. 3:51-52, 1890); Contribution 

 yvvards a knowledge of the genus Washingtonia (Bot. Gaz. 44:408-434, figs. 1-12, 1907); 

 3zl and the type of Washingtonia (Bot Gaz. 48:462-463, 1909). 



1. W. filifera Wendl. CALIFORNIA FAN PALM. (Fig. 37.) Columnar 

 ree 20 to 75 feet high, the trunk 1 to 3 feet in diameter at the enlarged base, 

 yvered with a scaly rind and sometimes clothed quite to the ground with a 

 latch of dead persistent recurved leaf -bases ; leaves fan-shaped, 3 to 6 feet long, 

 rith 40 to 60 folds, torn nearly to the middle, the divisions copiously fibrous; 

 jetioles 2 to 5 feet long, very stout ; flowers borne in a branched panicle on long 

 stems, the whole 8 to 12 feet long ; berries borne on pedicels 1 to l 1 /^ lines long, 

 slack, oval, 3 to 3^ lines long, with thin flesh surrounding a large seed which 

 flattened somewhat on the ventral side ; endosperm horny. 

 Westerly and northerly sides of the Colorado Desert, on or above the old 

 3ach line of the one-time interior sea, always in moist spots or oases, from near 

 ja-level to 3500 ft. 



Locs. West side of Colorado Desert (south to north) : Palm Sprs., 9 mi. e. of Vallecito 

 3prs. (palms now destroyed, U. S. Geol. Sur. Water-Supply Paper 224:85) ; Mountain Palm 

 >prs., a few miles southerly from the preceding sta. ; several trees in Hell-hole Canon, Mt. San 

 Fsidro; Palm Canon of San Ysidro, the lowest group in the canon (% mi. from mouth of 

 jorge) has about 86 large trees and 45 small ones (Button & Jepson), the entire canon said 

 'o contain a thousand; Indian Canon, opening n. into Collins Valley, trees in all the western 

 side-canons where there is water and also at intervals in upper part of main canon (Dutton 

 & Jepson) ; Thousand Palms Canon, opening into Collins Valley (the number of trees does 

 not justify the name Wm. Schnoka) ; Las Coyotas, Coyote Canon; Seventeen Palms, at 

 southeasterly base of the Santa Eosa Mts. in the Sheep Hills; Dos Palmas, easterly from 

 Pinon Flat, Santa Rosa Mts., 3500 ft. alt.; Palm Canon of San Jacinto, about 100 trees; Lukens 

 Canon, 50 or 60 trees; Murray Canon, about 100 trees; Andreas Canon, about 35 trees; side 

 canon of Snow Creek, n. slope Mt. San Jacinto, about 12 trees; 7 ml further west, canon with 

 2 trees, the trees now destroyed (Jepson, Silva Cal. 172). 



North side of Colorado Desert (west to east): Whitewater Canon; Seven Palms (easterly 

 from Palm Sprs. sta.) ; Willis Palms (F. H. Willis ranch, 4 mi. northeasterly from Edom 

 sta.) ; Thousand Palms, a very fine assemblage in Thousand Palms Canon, 4% mi northeast 

 of Edom sta. ; Hidden Palms, 2 groups in a canon 1 mi. e. of preceding locality) ; Pushwalla 

 Palms in Pushwalla Canon, next east; thence eastward a number of groups along the base of 

 the mountains north of Indio, including the Twelve Apostles group; northerly from Mecca 

 and about 6 mi. southerly from Shaver Well are two small palm groups in canons; cluster on 

 the alkaline flats near Mecca (Carnegie Publ. 193: 106) ; Dos Palmas (two palms at a spring 

 6 mi. e. of Salton sta.) ; said to occur also in Eed Canon, Chuckawalla Mts. (Parish, PI. World 

 17:123), which would be the most easterly locality; Twenty-nine Palms, 40 mi. n. of Mecca, the 

 most northerly locality; 4 mi. e. of Cottonwood Sprs., Cottonwood Mts., about 100 trees in a 

 canon ace. E. C. Jaeger. 



Refs. WASHINGTONIA FILIFERA Wendl. Bot. Zeit. 37:68 (1879); Jepson, Silva Cal. 172, 

 pis. 6, 55 (1910). Var. robusta Parish, Bot. Gaz. 44:420 (1907). W. robusta Wendl. Gart. 

 Zeit. 2:198 (1883). Var. microsperma Becc. in Parish, I.e. W. filamentosa Ktze. Eev. Gen. 

 PL 2:737 (1891); Sargent, Silva N. Am. 10:47, pi. 509 (1891). NeowasMngtonia filamentosa. 

 Sudw. U. S. D. A. Div. For. Bull. 14:105 (1891). 



