676 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL RIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



biTt, if grown in tiibs in the conservatory in winter, and placed in 

 the open air in summer, it will prove an excellent subject for 

 association with the hardier palms. 



The " Gardener's Chronicle " writes in 1895 (Nov. 2nd.) : " There 

 is a large healthy specimen of this palm in the temperate-house at 

 Kew. It has a trunk 8^ feet in circumference at the base, and 7 

 feet at a distance of 5 feet from the ground. It bears a grand head 

 of feather-like leaves, each 17 feet long and 4^ feet wide." 



In an account of the Royal Gardens at Lisbon (given at p. 292, 

 Vol. IV., of The Garden) mention is made of a specimen growing- 

 there in the open air, which has attained a height of 32 feet, and 

 the trunk of which measures 13 feet 8 inches at its base. In 

 1886, this identical specimen flowered and ripened fruits. It 

 was then 35 years old, and had a trunk over 16 feet high, and 14 

 feet in circumference at the base. The plant flowered in January 

 and the fruits ripened the following August. 



The tree may be seen thriving in the open air in gardens on the 

 Riviera, a specimen in M. Naudin's garden is 16 feet high, and the 

 girth of the tree at a yard high is more than 12 feet. The age of 

 the tree is 36 years. 



A plant was tried in the Bamboo Garden at Kew in 1893, but 

 it succumbed to the flrst severe frost. 



Naudin piiblished some interesting notes on the fructification of 

 Jubcea spectahilis in a French Revue* from which the " Gardener's 

 Chronicle" gave the following extracts in February 1895 : 



" Experiments in naturalisation lately made in France, with the 

 encoin-agement and aid of the Societe d' acclimatation, yield from 

 time to time results theoretically interesting and likely afterwards 

 to be of practical value. Thus, readers may be interested to learn 

 that this year there has flowered and fruited for the first time in 

 France the great Peruvian and Chilian Palm, Jubcea S2}ectahilis, 

 an important sugar producer in its native habitats. The tree 

 which fruited at Antibes is over thirty years old. Its height below 

 the crown of leaves is about 5 metres (or 16 feet) and its mighty 

 stem, glossy smooth from the base of the leaves, measures, at 

 the height of a man, 4 meters (13 feet). The crown of leaves 

 is not in proportion to the thickness of the stem, as it does not 

 exceed that of the Date Palm, and is less widely spreading than 

 that of Phcenix canariensis. Our tree, says Mr. Naudin, produced 

 two flower spikes springing from the axil of last year's leaves, about 

 1 metre long, and each bearing several hundred flowers, the males 

 with 15 to 20 stamens, and situated on the npper part of the 

 panicle, the females on the lower part. This species is, therefore, 



* iSTaudin Ch. in the " Eevue des Sciences Naturelles Applique'es, " November 20, 

 1894. 



"Vi 



