WASHINGTON 



British Columbia take great quantities of fruit and 

 vegetables. Shipments of perishable fruits have not 

 always been found to be profitable, but the state is fast 

 settling up, and the outlook for the horticulturist is very 

 bright. J. A. Balmer. 



WASHINGTON GRASS. See Cabomba. 



WASHINGTONIA (named for George Washington). 

 Palm&ceie. Tall palms, with the robust trunks clothed 

 above with remains of the sheaths and petioles: lvs. 

 terminal, ample, spreading, orbicular, flabellately pli- 

 cate, lobed nearly to the middle: segments induplicate, 

 filamentous on the margins: rachis short: ligule large, 

 appressed: petiole long, stout, plano-convex, very spiny 

 along the edges; spadices long, copiously paniculately 

 branched, glabrous: branches slender, rlexuous; spathes 

 long, membranous, split, glabrous : fls. white : fr. 

 small, ellipsoid, black. Species 3. Ariz., S. Calif, and 

 Mexico. Plate XLVIII. 



filifera, Wendl. (Brahea filamentdsa, Hort. B. fil- 

 ifera, Hort. Pritehdrdia filamentdsa, Wendl. P. 

 filifera, Hort.). Weeping Palm. Figs. 2716, 2717. 

 Stem cylindrical, 20-40 ft., enlarged at the base (2-3 ft.), 

 covered with persistent petiole bases; petioles 2-5 ft. 

 long, 1-2% in. wide at the summit, glabrous, plano-con- 

 vex, the rather thin margins with stout, hooked spines; 

 ligule large, glabrous, lacerate; blade circular, tomen- 

 tose on the margins of the 40-60 segments, 3-5 ft. in 

 diam., cleft on the upper side nearly to the middle, 

 gray-green; segments margined with numerous fibers 

 6-12 in. long. S. Calif., W. Ariz. Gn. 25, p. 393. G.C. 

 III. 12:591. R.H. 1876, p. 372; 1895, pp. 153-155. G.P. 

 6:535. Gt. 1896:5.— IT. filifera is perhaps the most 

 characteristic palm of California. Its immense straight 

 bole and shaggy collar of derlexed dead leaves make a 

 striking and picturesque object. This collar of old 

 leaves usually burns fiercely in the dry season. 



robusta, H. Wendl. ( Washingtdnia Sotidra?, Hort. in 

 part). Stem more robust: petiole shorter and more 

 densely spiny, the young plants with yellow spines and 

 black-violet sheaths and petioles, at length brown; 

 blade light green, 3 ft. long by 3% ft. wide; segments 

 60. Western Mex. G.P. 38:49. R.H. 1885, p. 403. 



Sondrae, Wats. Stem 25 ft. high, 1 ft. in diam.: lvs. 

 3-4 ft. in diam., somewhat glaucous, very filiferous; 

 petioles 3 ft. long, very slender, 2 in. wide at base, %in. 

 at apex, floecose-hairy along the margins and with stout 

 curved spines: fr. % in. long, edible. Mex. 



Jared G. Smith. 



Further Notes on Washingtonia. — Our nursery 

 catalogues show that the identity of the three species of 

 Washingtonia is a matter of conjecture in the minds of 

 growers. In middle California there are two distinct 

 types in general cultivation: (1) the one having very 

 filamentous deeply cleft leaves, long (3-5 ft.) petioles 

 with yellow margins and spines, which is the Colorado 

 Desert species, W. filifera, Wendl.; it is less hardy in 

 San Francisco than W. robusta, suffering from cold 

 winds and fogs and often rotting at the center of the 

 growing part. (2) The species with more robust habit, 

 the growing part of the stem shorter and therefore more 

 distinctly conical, dark leaf-sheaths, short, stout petioles 

 with brown, often very dark margins and spines, and 

 shorter, more rigid, less deeply cut and often less fila- 

 mentous leaf-blades, which is the one from Mexico and 

 Lower California, W. robusta, Wendl. ( W. Sonorce, 

 Hort. Calif, in part). This dark color of the petiole 

 margins and spines is equally noticeable in the young 

 as well as in older specimens. Comparative study of 

 the inflorescence may perhaps establish this palm as a 

 mere geographical variety of W. filifera, but we have 

 not been able to study flowering specimens. It is cer- 

 tain that a part of the material offered by nurserymen 

 under the name of Washingtonia Sonora? is really W. 

 robusta. Its greater hardiness in the climate of San 

 Francisco shows that Washingtonia robusta is by far 

 the most desirable species for cultivation along the 

 coast of middle California. 



The following data give evidence that many of the 

 specimens in cultivation in the San Francisco bay re- 

 gion have originated from Mexican seed and are not, as 



WASHINGTONIA 



1965 



is sometimes suggested, mere cultural varieties devel- 

 oped from seed of the typical form of the Colorado 

 Desert. According to Charles Abraham, for many 

 years proprietor of the Western Nursery, San Francisco, 

 seed of Washingtonia robusta was introduced some 

 twenty-five years ago by Mr. Sressovitch, a commission 

 merchant of San Francisco, from the coast of Mexico 

 near Guaymas. Of the trees raised from this seed there 

 is a specimen at Abraham's nursery, and Mr. Abraham 

 states that there is a fine one in the grounds of St. 

 Ignatius College, San Francisco, and another at the 

 Crocker residence in Sacramento. The latter has al- 

 ready matured seed, from which Mr. Abraham has 

 raised a young plant. In the old Bolton garden at 

 Greenwich and Jones streets, San Francisco, there were 

 growing until this year several well-marked specimens. 

 According to Miss Lizzie Bolton, these were raised from 

 seeds presented to her mother, Mrs. James R. Bolton 

 (formerly Mrs. Estrada) by friends who brought them 

 from Mazatlan. These specimens are now in Mr. Abra- 

 ham's possession. A third importation of seed was made 

 by Mr. John Rock, manager of the California Nursery 

 Co. at Niles, but we do not know whence it came. 



Washingtonia SonorCB is rarely seen in cultivation, 

 though frequently mentioned in nurserymen's cata- 

 logues, and it is certain that much of the material of- 

 fered under this name is really W. robusta. In his 

 "Flora of the Cape Region of Baja California," in Proc. 

 Calif. Acad. Sci., series 2, vol. 3, pp. 109-182, Mr. T. S. 

 Brandegee records that Washingtonia Sonorce occurs at 

 La Paz and San Jose% and notes that "a species of 

 Washingtonia is abundant in the canons of the moun- 

 tains and may be this one." A few years ago Dr. 

 Gustav Eisen is reported to have collected seeds of a 

 Washingtonia at La Paz, which were handed to a gar- 

 dener in San Francisco for propagation; some of the 

 seedlings were obtained by Mr. Abraham, but only one 

 survived ; this specimen shows the characteristic slender 





2716. Youne plant of Washingtonia filifera. 



petiole and glaucous leaf of the true W. Sonora;. This 

 species appears to be much less hardy under cultivation 

 than W. robusta. 



From the above notes it would appear that both W. 



