JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
VoL. V. February, 1904. No, 50 
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S PALMS. 
me Washingtonia was first proposed by Wendland in 
1879 (Bot Zeitung, 3'7: 68) for the palm which had then been 
known for some years in Europe as Brahea filifera and Pritchardia 
Jfiifera; \Nendland showed that it was generically different from 
either Brahea, a Mexican genus of two or three species, and 
from Pritchardia of the South Sea islands. 
This palm first became known in Europe from seeds obtained 
by the nurseryman Linden, of Ghent, apparently as early as 1869, 
but he does not seem to have recorded the source from which 
they came. It is stated in am ‘Horticole, 48 : 373, 1876, that 
the plant was introduced into cultivation by Linden in 1871 under 
the name Pritchardia filifera, and that it was also listed in his 
catalogue no. 96 as Brahea filamentosa, Jt was exhibited as 
Pritchardia filifera at the quinquennial horticultural exhibition 
held at Ghent in 1873, by Linden, together with other palms new 
to cultivation. (See Illustration Horticole, 20: 98; no descrip- 
tion of it is there given, how 
As to the origin of the eh Watson (Proceedings Amer. 
Acad. 25: 136) cites evidence to show that they were collected 
in Cantilles Cafion, northern Lower California. Dru 
however (Botanische Zeitung, 34: 806, 1876), ‘that . aa 
then known as Pritchardia filamentosa was obtained by Roez] in 
northern Mexico, near Arizona, on the Colorado River; this 
origin is also given in Revue Horticole, 48: 374, and the differ- 
ences of the palm from either Brahea or Pritchardia are discussed. 
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