LUTHER BURBANK 



until it comes to the age of blossoming; and the 

 palm is a tree of slow growth that matures only 

 after a good many years. 



But trees grown from suckers will be of the 

 same sex as the parent trees; hence the double 

 utility of propagating by this method. 

 PALMS FOR ORNAMENT 



From the standpoint of the present chapter, 

 however, the fruit-bearing qualities of the palm 

 are not so much in question as its ornamental 

 character. Considered merely as ornamental 

 trees, there are members of the genus Phoenix, to 

 which the date palm belongs, that are more attract- 

 ive than this famous fruit bearer. And in general 

 the character of the form and foliage of a date 

 palm is carried with sufficient certainty from 

 parent to offspring by the seed to make it perfectly 

 permissible to raise palms from the seed for orna- 

 mental purposes. 



Even where the seeds are planted in rows, with 

 the expectation of producing colonnades of palms, 

 along road sides or for borders, the palms may be 

 grown from the seed without danger that they will 

 vary sufficiently to interfere with the symmetry of 

 the row, provided the seed are gathered from the 

 same tree, or at any rate have come from the same 

 region. 



If, however, the seed be imported from different 



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