LUTHER BURBANK 



usually made, the undeveloped, immature leaves 

 being used for this purpose. 



The palms of this genus usually bear the 

 stamenate and pistillate flowers on different trees, 

 but it is not unusual to find a few stamenate blos- 

 soms on pistillate trees, or, contrariwise, a few 

 pistillate blossoms on stamenate trees. This, 

 however, is a matter of no great practical import- 

 ance, since the trees are grown in this region only 

 for ornament, and it is not necessary to raise them 

 from the seed, as they put out suckers abundantly. 



On the other hand, if the attempt is to be made 

 to hybridize the different species with the hope of 

 developing hardier races, the matter of fertiliza- 

 tion of the flowers becomes obviously important. 



It will be worth while, then, to select the trees 

 with reference to those that tend to mature their 

 fruit early. 



But the work of developing a race of hardy 

 palms will necessarily be a slow one, requiring the 

 co-operative labors of successive generations of 

 plant experimenters. And whereas it is probable 

 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 mo- 

 ment the matter can have practical interest only 



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