TRE PALMS OF BRITISR INDIA AND CEYLON. 371 



Of these food supplies the fruit of the palm was an important 

 part. It was eaten fresh, and also dried for preservation. A 

 favourite method of preparing the dried fruit was by triturating it 

 with water in a stone mortar until a pulpy mass, rich in saccharine 

 properties was produced. The seeds were then separated and the 

 pulp was thickened with meal made from pounded ' chia ' (Salvia), 

 or grass seed, or pine nuts. The bony seed itself was pounded 

 into meal which Edward Palmer (1878J, who seems to have tried 

 it, pronounces " not inferior to cocoanut, " a statement which 

 may be accepted with some reservation. The terminal bud also 

 was baked and eaten. Each grove was the property of a particular 

 clan, to whom alone belonged the right to gather the fruit 

 (Parish^. 



Cultivation.— The Desert Palm was first cultivated by the 

 Jesuits in their mission gardens of southern California long before 

 this region became a part of the United States. It has now 

 become one of the commonest trees in the gardens and streets of 

 the south-western part of California, growing rapidly and vigorously 

 there, as it does in southern Europe, where, in a comparatively 

 short time, it has attained a large size and produced flowers and 

 fruits. Two specimens in San Pedro Street in Los Angeles, 

 believed to have been planted by the Jesuit missionaries, with 

 stems nearly 9 feet through at the ground, are estimated to be 100 

 feet high. ^ 



Wendland founded this species (1883^ on young plants grown 

 by Van Houtte at Ghent, and its ascribed indigenous source is 

 evidently wrong, since it was asserted to be "the borders of the 

 Sacramento River." Van Houtte received the seeds under the 

 name of the species already known, and under that name their 

 product was at first sold, until Wendland recognized them as 

 distinct, and published the name W. robusta. 



About this time collectors began to secure palm seed at Palm 

 •Springs, in the Colorado desert. Parish is convinced that this 

 place was the true source of Wendlands second type, and he 

 considers it as certain that most of the trees growing there are 



^ Kinney in Scientif . American, Vol- 60, p. 263. 



