PHLOX 



PHCENIX 



2591 



nial: perhaps hybrid of P. paniculata and P. Dnimmondii. F.S. 

 8:800. P. Lindsayana, Hort., apparently of the P. subulata group, 

 said to be a hybrid and useful for rockery and border. P. sibfrica, 

 Linn. The one Asian species, occuring also in Alaska: a low loosely 

 cespitose species, 6-9 in. high, white-fld., mostly villous-pubescent: 

 Ivs. narrow-linear: corolla-lobes obcordate or emarginate. 



L. H. B. 



PHOENICOPH6RIUM: Stetentonia. 



PH(ENIX (Theophrastus gave this name to the date 

 palm, perhaps thinking of Phoenicia, where the Greeks 

 were supposed first to have seen it, or of the Phoenician 

 purple, or of the fabled bird of Egypt). Palmdcex. A 

 distinct and exceedingly useful genus of palms, planted 

 for fruit, ornament and shade. 



Palms with sts. spineless (in many species the lower 

 Ifts. are reduced to long stout spine-like processes), 

 without trunks, or with stout or slender, short or long, 

 erect or inclined trunks, often cespitose, clothed above 

 with the persistent bases of the Ivs.: Ivs. terminal, 

 spreading, recurved, 

 unequally pinnate; 

 segms. somewhat 

 fasciculate or almost 

 equidistant, elon- 

 gated - lanceolate or 

 ensiform, acuminate, 

 rigid, inserted by the 

 wide base; margins 

 entire or folded on 

 their entire length; 

 rachis laterally com- 

 pressed, convex on the 

 back; petiole plano- 

 convex, usually 

 spiny, with very short 

 rigid pinnae; sheaths 

 short, fibrous: 

 spadices usually 



many, erect or nod- 

 ding in fr., or pendent, 

 appearing among 

 the Ivs. : peduncle 

 strongly compressed: 

 branches usually 

 somewhat umbellate: 

 spathe basilar, entire, 

 long, compressed, 2-edged, coriaceous 

 ventrally and at length dorsally divided; 

 bracts usually obsolete; fls. small, 

 leathery, yellow: fr. a berry or drupe, 

 oblong, orange, brown or black, the seed 

 always grooved. Species 10-12, perhaps 

 more, in Trpp. and Subtrop. Asia and Afr. 

 The botanical monograph of the genus 

 Phoenix by Beccari (in Malesia 3:345) 

 admits only 10 species, although there 

 are about 60 names. Such a ''lumping" of 

 species is very unwelcome to the horti- 

 culturist, and it is probable that nearly all the synonyms 

 cited below represent forms that are abundantly dis- 

 tinct for horticultural purposes. The following account 

 of the genus is adapted from the work of Beccari, 

 especially the Asiatic species. A good horticultural 

 appreciation of Phoenix is that bv William Watson, of 

 Kew, in G.C. III. 9:234, 298, from which liberal 

 extracts are made below. Phoenixes differ from all 

 other pinnate-lvd. palms in having the Ivs. folded 

 upward and lengthwise, and in the peculiar form of the 

 seed, as seen in the date stone. The plants are either 

 male or female. 



The fruits of only one species are used for food; viz., 

 P. dactylifera. (For date-culture, see Date.) In Eng- 

 land, only P. rupicola ranks among popular decorative 

 plants. Of all palms, the cultivated species of Phoenix 

 are the most difficult to define. Many hybrids have 

 been raised in the gardens of the Riviera, where several 

 species flower and fruit every year. It is almost impos- 



2918. Phoanii Roebelenii. 



sible to keep these pure. Kerchove records the wonder- 

 ful fecundity of a phoenix; P. redinata at Nice fertilized 

 with pollen from P. tennis, P. redinata and P. pumila 

 produced 20,000 seeds. The raising of phoenixes from 

 seed is done on a large scale on the Riviera. The seeds 

 are sown in beds in the open and the seedlings trans- 

 planted into shallow trenches like celery, so that the 

 trenches may be regularly flooded during the summer 

 drought. Next to the coco-palm, the date is one of the 

 most useful trees in the world. P. canariensis is the 

 noblest of all phoenixes, and one of the most majestic 

 palms ha cultivation. Its rate of growth is astonishing : a 

 tree supposed to be only ten years old had a trunk 4 feet 

 high, 3 feet in diameter at the base, with about one 

 hundred leaves forming a head 25 feet across. Another 

 specimen of about the same size bore eight bunches of 

 fruit, each weighing about fifty pounds. P. sylvestris is 

 the wild date of India, where it is cultivated for its 

 sap, which yields sugar and 

 "toddy." The trunk attains a 

 height of about 4 feet when 

 seven years old, and it is then 

 tapped by cutting a notch in 

 the stem at the top and catch- 

 ing the sap as it runs out. The 

 tree continues to yield annually 

 fifteen to eighteen gallons of 

 sap for twenty to twenty-five 

 years, or eight pounds of 

 sugar a year. Many thousand 

 tons of date-sugar are produced 

 every year in Bengal alone 

 from this and other palms. "P. 

 reclinata and P. 

 spinosa are united 

 under the former 

 name by Beccari. 

 Taking the dwarf, 

 cespitose, shiny- 

 leaved elegant plant 

 found in Caffraria as 

 fax south as Gra- 

 hamstown, and comparing it with the 

 tall, solitary stem, huge-headed, gray- 

 green-leaved plant of the tropical regions 

 of Africa, it is difficult to believe that 

 they are merely forms of one species." 

 An interesting novelty in phoenix is 

 the plant known as P. Roebelenii, the 

 pygmy phoenix (Fig. 2919.) Specimens 

 twenty to thirty years old have stems 

 not over 2 feet high. Watson says: "It 

 is by far the smallest of all the many 

 kinds of phoenix known, and is also 

 exceptional in the form of its stem and 

 in the elegance and soft texture of its 

 bright green leaves." Watson adds that 

 it deserves to rank with Cocos Weddettiana and Geonoma 

 gracilis for usefulness hi a small state. This palm 

 suckers freely and hi a wild state grows hi clumps. 

 P. Roebelenii is often treated as a variety of P. humilis; 

 but Watson and others think that it is a distinct species 

 and that hi the form and texture of its leaves it resem- 

 bles P. rupicola more than any other species. Because 

 of its distinctness horticulturally and the general uncer- 

 tainty in the genus, it is advisable to keep P. Roebelenii 

 distinct for the present at least. It is native in the Laos 

 region of Indo-China, where it was discovered by Mr. 

 Roebelin, who went there regularly every year and 

 exported the seed to Europe by way of Bangkok. It is 

 specially abundant hi the Nam Ou River Valley, and 

 occurs also toward Pac Lay. 



The botany of Phoenix is much confused, and no one 

 knows what is planted in this country under the differ- 

 ent names. The species hybridize freely, and it is 

 probable that most of the cultivated forms are hybrids 



