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THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



Ceroxylon niveum, often called the 

 wax palm, comes from the Andes. Hand 

 some for subtropical gardening, and 

 thrives in a cool greenhouse in winter. 



Chamffirops; low growing, compact 

 palms. C. humilis is one of the very few 

 palms found in Europe. It has short 

 stems, with a much divided leaf, which 

 is long, narrow and erect. The whole 

 bush, as it appears, makes it splendid for 

 a vase in a conspicuous place, or the 

 ideal plant when two or three feet high 

 and as much through, for a tropical 

 bed. C. macrocarpa is a very robust 

 species, fine for any purpose where hu 

 milis is useful. C. excelsa is a grand, 

 hardy palm. 



Cocos nucifera is the cocoanut palm. 

 It has fine fronds of a bright, glossy 

 green, but would be useful only as an 

 ornament to the palm house. Australis 

 and flexuosa are two ornamental species. 

 The handsome little Weddelliana has re 

 ceived notice. 



Corypha Australis; a low growing, 

 compact, hardy palm. Makes a fine 

 plant. 



Euterpe; tall growing, graceful palms. 



those of the earyota or fish tail palms. 

 Caryotsefolia and erosa are two of the 

 most useful species. 



Oreodoxa regia, from Cuba; tall, 

 rather slender stem, with large spread 

 ing fronds. Before the introduction of 

 the kentias this palm was in great 

 esteem. Useful in sheltered places for 

 tropical gardening. O. oleracea is the 

 cabbage palm of the West Indies, and 

 there are several other species. 



Phrcnicophorium sechellarum or 

 Stevensonia grandifolia; this handsome 

 palm is from the island of Mauritius 

 and should be always warm; it thrives 

 in a moisture-charged atmosphere. It 

 would not be either a house or a decora 

 tive plant, but where there are the proper 

 conditions for its growth it is one of the 

 most handsome of all. H. Siebrecht & 

 Son say of it: &quot;It has grand, dark, 

 green, fluted foliage of immense size, 

 exceedingly glossy, and dotted with many 

 minute orange-colored spangles. The 

 stems also are of orange color and cov 

 ered with long black spines. Justly con 

 sidered one of the handsomest and most 

 imposing of the whole race. 



Phoenix Rupicola. 



Would not be so useful as the kentias 

 for decoration. E. edulis and E. mon- 

 tana are the best. 



Geonoma, a very large genus of low 

 growing hothouse palms. All the species 

 are handsome, but not to be recom 

 mended as house plants. The species 

 gracilis has handsome slender fronds, 

 resembling those of Cocos Weddelliana. 



Martinezia; medium growing palms, 

 the segments of the leaf resembling 



Pritchardia ; this is a most imposing 

 genus, but should always be kept in the 

 palm house. The leaves are large and 

 broad, fluted, and a deep green. The 

 leaves of P. grandis when well grown 

 are five feet across. They make but a 

 short stem or trunk, but send out many 

 of their remarkable leaves. P. grandis 

 (or Licuala grandis) is the finest. P. 

 pacifica has dark green leaves, covered 

 with a white down when young; a fine 



species. Several other species are in 

 commerce. 



Ptychosperma Alexandra? and P. Cun- 

 ninghamiana ; these are known as the 

 Australian feather palms. Tall palms 

 of rapid growth, with fine arching 

 fronds. In general appearance they re 

 semble the kentias, but they are coarser 

 in growth and much softer, and will not 

 endure the rough treatment that the 

 kentias will, which for all commercial 

 purposes is much superior. But for tall 

 palm houses the ptychospermas soon 

 make fine specimens. P. Cunninghamiana 

 was for years known as Seaforthia 

 elegans, and was twenty years ago our 

 main decorative palm, but is entirely 

 superseded by the kentia. 



Khapis; a useful genus of but a few 

 species. The plants spread and send up 

 several straight, erect stems, large plants 

 forming clumps, which can be divided, 

 or the young plants taken off as they 

 appear. The stems from near the ground 

 are clothed with leaves, giving the plant 

 a thick, bushy appearance. The rhapis 

 are very hardy and useful for decorating, 

 and can be used on the lawn or in the 

 tropical garden in summer. Khapis 

 flabelliformis is the most useful. R. 

 humilis is almost identical, but smaller. 



Sabal ; this is our native palmetto 

 palm, which grows so abundantly in our 

 southern states. When growing at its 

 best it has a trunk of thirty to forty 

 feet, and leaves six to eight feet long. 

 There are several species, natives of 

 Central and South America, but they 

 are not of any special value to the com 

 mercial florist. 



I have never mentioned the flower of 

 the palm, that feature by which botanists 

 classify them into genera, because we 

 cultivate palms all our lives, and grow 

 them to be large plants, without ever 

 seeing a palm in flower. Most species 

 attain a great size and are many years 

 old before they flower, but true flowers 

 they do have, we know, for we eat the 

 fruit of the pho3nix (the date) and the 

 seed of the cocos (the cocoanut), and 

 the seeds or nuts of many others are 

 edible. 



In conclusion, let me give my opinion 

 that the use of palms, great as it is at 

 present, is yet to be largely increased. 

 The supply of the useful kinds has bare 

 ly kept up with the demand in spite of 

 great increases in glass area. 



The return to the greenhouse of a 

 scrubby palm to be doctored or recu 

 perated is one of the disagreeable fea 

 tures of our business, and must be left 

 entirely to the discretion of yourself. 

 You don t like to offend, but you must 

 be firm in this case. If a plant is in 

 fair order and the customer wants you 

 to keep it while he is away, that is all 

 right, if you charge for it by the month, 

 as we do. But when a kentia or latania 

 is brought home with two small leaves 

 and a diseased center, write immediately 

 to the owners and tell them that it would 

 take four years to make a respectable 

 looking plant of their palm, and the 

 charge would be three times the cost of 

 a healthy plant of the same size. By 

 that plain but truthful and respectful 

 information you will usually get a tele- 



