ORXAMENTAL PALMS 247 



But the work of developing a race of hardy 

 palms will necessarily be a slow one, requiring 

 the cooperative labors of successive generations 

 of plant experimenters. And whereas it is prob- 

 able that in the course of a century or two hardy 

 palms will be developed, so that the question of 

 selection of ornamental palms will be of interest 

 even to residents of the middle and perhaps even 

 of the northern regions of the United States, 

 at the moment the matter can have practical 

 interest only for a limited number of people, 

 and we need not consider it more at length 

 here. 



It suffices to say that the methods of hybrid- 

 izing and selection that have proved successful 

 with other plants will doubtless be found to have 

 full application to the palm ; and to add that the 

 actual work in this field has been begun only in 

 a tentative way. 



The method of hybridizing is simplicity itself 

 — as simple as crossing two varieties of corn. 



Meantime, however, the palm exists as an or- 

 namental tree of the very greatest value in Cali- 

 fornia, and the interest shown in it by tourists 

 justifies the expectation that, in the near future, 

 efforts of a comprehensive character may be 

 made, probably under Government supervision, 

 to develop races of pahns that can be grown far 



