WASHINGTONIA FILAMENTOSA CALIFORNIA FAN PALM. 63 



whose exterior was charred by repeated burnings of the accumulated 

 dead leaves about their crowns by the Indians, and I am inclined to 

 think that the tissues of the trunk were colored in consequence. In 

 new wood the parenchyma is nearly white, and the bundles of a light 

 greenish yellow color. 



The wood shrinks very greatly in drying, the area covered by one 

 of our transverse sections being now only about half what it was when 

 the tree was freshly cut. As the shrinkage is mainly in the paren- 

 chymatous tissue the bundles of wood must not be considered as being 

 as close together in the growing tree as shown in the accompanying 

 section. 



USES. The fruit of this tree has long been an article of food by 

 the Indians, who eat it fresh and also grind the seeds into a flour. 

 They have a habit of setting fire to the dead leaves which accumulate 

 about the crown of the tree and which they are said to do for a double 

 purpose offering incense to the souls of their departed ancestors and 

 hastening the ripening of the fruit, which I am told they can do by 

 about a month. 



The "Washington Palm is justly very popular for ornamental plant- 

 ing, and so extensively has it been planted along the streets and about 

 the orange orchards of southern California that it has become a 

 feature already prominent in the aspect of the region, and in time will 

 give it the appearance in places, it would seem, almost of palm forests. 



