ON SOME ORNAMENTALS 



palm will die after transplantation, because the 

 loss of its long roots makes quick adaptation to 

 the new conditions impossible. 



The Phoenix canariensis is a thoroughly hardy 

 palm in this climate, and the handsomest of the 

 hardy members of the tribe. 



It is therefore the one most used for planting 

 for ornament in California, though the Chamae- 

 rops excelsior from Japan is as hardy and next 

 most common. The Canary palm grows with great 

 rapidity after the plant has the first five or six 

 leaves, although like all other palms its early 

 growth is slow. An ordinary specimen of this 

 species, transplanted into good soil in this region 

 when it has four or five leaves, will grow to a 

 height of fifteen feet, with a corresponding spread 

 of branches, and develop a trunk eighteen inches 

 in diameter in six to ten years. 



No other palm with which I am acquainted will 

 make more than about one-fourth this growth in 

 the same time and under the same circumstances. 



There is considerable difference in appearance, 

 however, and in rapidity of growth of different 

 strains of palms of this species. Yet the seedlings 

 are unusually true to type, so that long rows of the 

 Canary palms may be grown from the seed with 

 full assurance that they will not vary sufficiently to 

 break up the general uniformity of the row. 



[209] 



