28 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



party of Major Emory while traversing in 1846, the 

 Colorado Desert of California en route for San 

 Diego. In his company were some Florida cam- 

 paigners, who hailed the trees as old friends, believ- 

 ing them to be cabbage palms, or palmettos a very 

 different tree in fact, though outwardly resemblant. 

 Many a tourist on his first visit to California makes 

 the same not unnatural mistake. The Washing- 

 tonia is extensively grown in Europe from seeds 

 originally procured in California. 



Another of the tribe very commonly planted and 

 somewhat resembling the WasHngtonia, is the so- 

 called windmill palm (Chamaerops excelsa), which 

 has slipped in from China, in spite of California's 

 anti-Chinese sentiments. The shape of the trunk 

 constitutes a characteristic by which the non- 

 botanical may distinguish it from the Washing- 

 tonia. The latter narrows upward from a robust 

 butt, while the trunk of the windmill palm is dis- 

 posed to be top heavy, thickening upward from the 

 somewhat attenuated base. It is, moreover, rather 

 heavily clothed with a tangle of dark fiber. 



The sharp-eyed, even if not versed in botany, soon 

 notice that the palms naturally separate into two 

 general divisions those whose leaves, as in the case 

 of the two species just mentioned, are in the form 

 of fans, and those whose foliage is feather-shaped. 



