Palms. 269 



occur in temperate latitudes. In hot countries they take 

 the place in the landscape which in cold countries is 

 held by the Conifers. The frontiers of their respective 

 empires now and then overlap, but each race, in respect 

 of the other, stands proudly aloof. Hence these splendid 

 plants are in England seldom seen out of conservatories. 

 One or two of the minor kinds, Spanish and Japanese 

 species of Chamaerops, with fan-shaped leaves, are hardy 

 enough to endure the open air north of the Channel, 

 and many kinds do well in the temperature of the 

 dwelling-house, but most of them require summer warmth. 

 Even when sheltered by glass, as at Kew and Chats- 

 worth, palms under cultivation give but a faint idea 

 of the grandeur they acquire in the lands where it is 

 " always afternoon." The supreme comfort to the culti- 

 vator is that they are cheerful at all seasons, and that 

 being strongly knit, and having leaves of dry and rigid 

 texture, they can live and thrive where many less glorious 

 things would speedily perish. Not that all palms attain 

 the stature above-mentioned. In many species a stem is 

 scarcely developed. These suggest the idea rather of 

 certain kinds of ferns, and while young are consummately 

 beautiful objects for indoor decoration. So, indeed, are 

 the loftiest, while striplings : a young palm well chosen as 

 to kind, is an object never out of place, never incon- 

 sistent or superfluous. Of all plants known to Botany, 

 young palms compare the best with the white marble 

 goddesses that tell of the piety of twenty-five hundred 

 years ago. 



