414 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [December 



houses of Linden in Ghent. It seems certain that the seeds were 

 brought to Europe by Roezl.^ They purported to have been col- 

 lected in Arizona, near the Colorado River, and Fenzi ('76)^ even gives 

 latitude and longitude, which would locate the parent trees in the 

 neighborhood of Prescott, Arizona, a region rather of pines than of 

 palms. Definite as are these statements, it is impossible that Roezl 

 ever could have seen a Washingtonia growing spontaneously or 

 have collected its seed. The seeds which he carried to Europe he 

 must have received from another, probably in San Francisco, and 

 with them an inaccurate or misunderstood account of their source. 



Roezl appears to have made but a single visit to America. He 

 left Europe in August 1872, landing at New York, and proceeding 

 by way of St. Louis to Denver, where he made his headquarters. 

 On September 6 he wrote from that place that he had sent home six 

 boxes of Yucca angustifolia, some cactuses, and bulbs of Calochortus. 

 He then made a trip, of a fortnight's duration, into northern New 

 Mexico, where he saw Abies concolor^ Yucca haccata^ and Ipomoea 

 leptophylla. On October 3 he wrote from San Francisco, telling of 

 his route, by the Union and Central Pacific Railways, through Utah 

 and Nevada. He remained in San Francisco until about November i, 

 when he sailed for Panama. ^° 



The early reports of the location of the parent trees proving unre- 

 liable, we are left without any authentic information as to the source of 

 Linden's seeds. They may have come from native trees in the 

 region now known to be occupied by these palms, or from some of 

 the older cultivated trees in southern California. There is reason 

 to believe that some of the earliest subsequent importations of seed 



W. Dunn 



northern 



Arizona 



gesammelt 



wird" (Drtjde 



9 "La scopeta di questa Palma se debba all' intrepide B. Roezl, che Taviabbe 

 retrovata nell* Arizona (Stati Uniti), dove cresca spontanea sulle rive del Colorado, 

 a circa 115° de longitudine ouest del meridiano de Parigi, e circa de 35** latitudine 



nord. 



w 



10 Notices of Roezl may be found in Gartenflora 1874:49; 1889:330; Jour. 

 Bot. 1874:384; Gard. Cbron. 2:521, 1889. He died at Prague, October 14, 1889. 

 at the age of 61 years. 



