PALMS AND BAMBOOS 229 



at Genoa, but I have not heard of their being grown 

 out of doors in England, and Erythma armata (Brahea 

 Eoezelii), from the Rocky Mountains, may perhaps 

 prove hardy. 



The cultivation of the hardy palms is perfectly easy. 

 The Arabs say that they require to have their feet in 

 cold water and their head in a furnace. This combina- 

 tion we cannot give them, nor is it necessary ; they only 

 require to be planted in good soil, to be protected from 

 wind, and not disturbed, and when once established 

 they give no further trouble, and they give a continual 

 delight to the grower. 



It is easy to pass from palms to bamboos, for though 

 they are not botanically related, yet they seem almost 

 to pass into each other at some points : — 



' Their relationship will probably be thought rather distant 

 by those who, from want of other materials, compare the 

 meadow-grasses of the temperate zone with the cocoa-nut 

 trees of the tropics ; but it will become more apparent wlien 

 the huge bamboo, as the representative of the grasses, is 

 placed by the side of some small rattan, as that of the 

 palms.' — Seeman, 



The rattan, or ratoung, which provides the canes of 

 commerce, as well as the ' Penang Lawyers ' and the 

 Malacca canes, are all the produce of palms and not of 

 bamboos. The bamboos are true gigantic grasses, and 



