240 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS 



Cocos is the most justly admired palm in every garden where they 

 have been used. Kentias have a very graceful drooping habit. Five 

 of the varieties have been grown with success. The Sabals are rather 

 slow in forming a trunk; some of the species attain a height of one 

 hundred feet and are stately, massive and grand. Fifteen varieties are 

 known to be hardy in Montecito. Thrinax is a drooping, graceful, 

 fan-leaved variety. Six of the species are known to succeed here. 

 There are over one hundred species of palms that are known to flourish 

 luxuriantly in the Santa Barbara region." 



There are mesas bordering other California valleys where quite as 

 much can be done, but they must be sought and verified in advance of 

 investment for this particular purpose. 



Kinds of Palms. Limitations of space will not allow us to pre- 

 sent even such limited knowledge as we have about the different kinds 

 of palms which are generally hardy and available for common garden 

 planting. There are a dozen or twenty of that class and the nursery- 

 men describe them in their catalogues and can furnish them at reason- 

 able prices. Beyond that one has to go to the specialists in palms. 

 The safe and sure ones can also be seen in the parks and older gardens 

 in the different regions of California. The intending planter should 

 make such local studies for himself. 



The palms which have been used in largest quantities are the Cali- 

 fornia fan palm, the Japanese fan palm, the fruiting date palm and the 

 Canary Island date palm. All these are tall growing and available for 

 street or avenue planting, if one likes palms at all for that purpose. 



Most notable is the Canary Island date palm, of which a portrait is 

 given on plate 11. It is our most splendid hardy palm and the planting 

 of it has been so widespread during the last few years that it bids fair 

 to displace the native fan palm as the most prevalent palm in the state. 

 It is strikingly superior thereto in grace and beauty; is quite as hardy 

 and can be as readily grown from the seed. It thus becomes available 

 for the widest planting and none need miss its possession on the 

 ground of cost. It should be planted widely over our valleys and 

 foothills, for its graceful head of foliage and its rhythmically swaying 

 leaves are fitting and beautiful in almost all situations, but one must 

 remember to give it room enough. The plant shown in the engraving 

 has a spread of foliage 26^ feet in diameter and is 33 feet in height. 

 Its beauty attracts the attention of passers-by and rewards them for 

 the study they make of its symmetry and beautiful arrangement of 

 leaves. It is a staminate plant and different in robustness and density 

 of crown, from the pistillate, the latter being, so far as we have ob- 

 served it, a more open and smaller plant more airy and light and 

 perhaps to some tastes more graceful. For ornamental purposes the 

 Canary Island plant is greatly superior to the fruit-bearing date, which 

 has a more bristling and bustling aspect, as a plant should which is 



