152 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 425. 



tant botanical characters and in its more slender habit and 

 smaller size. First considered a species of Pritchardia by 

 Wendland, the German authority on Palms, our California 

 Palm was afterward made the type of his genus Washing- 

 tonia. Some later students of the Palms have now united 

 Washingtonia again with Pritchardia, but the structure 

 of the flower with its free stamens, the armed petioles, 

 and its geographical distribution appear sufficient grounds 

 for considering Washingtonia generically distinct. 



The two Sabals and the Washingtonia are the only Palms 

 which belong to the flora of North America, and one of the 

 Sabals, which only just enters our territory, is really Mexi- 

 can. The other arborescent Palms in the United States are 

 all tropical species and are confined to the shores and keys 

 of the extreme southern part of Florida which are covered 

 by a purely tropical vegetation, and where three genera are 

 represented. 



The first of these is Oreodoxa, an American genus of 

 about four species. Three are lofty trees, the loftiest, per- 

 haps, of all the American Palms, and true princes of the 

 vegetable kingdom, while the fourth is a humble inhabit- 

 ant of the high slopes of the Andes of Ecuador, only re- 

 markable as one of the most alpine of all Palms. The 

 largest species, Oreodoxa oleracea, the Cabbage Palm of 

 the Antilles, sends up a slender trunk nearly two hundred 

 feet in height, surmounted by a long, green, polished cylin- 

 der of petiole sheaths and a crown of long, arching, grace- 

 ful, pinnate leaves frequently twenty feet long and six feet 

 wide. Its tall pale stem and beautiful head make this Palm 

 a favorite in gardens, and it is planted in all tropical coun- 

 tries and often in long and stately avenues, as in the Botanic 

 Garden of Rio de Janeiro, which owes its fame to its Palm 

 avenue. Economically, Oreodoxa oleracea is one of the 

 most useful of the American Palms. The bud of young 

 leaves, like that of the Palmetto, is eaten as a vegetable ; 

 the sheathing bases of the leaf-stalks, which are eight or ten 

 feet long, are used by the negroes as cradles, and are split 

 into surgeons' splints ; from the inner coat of these sheaths 

 vellum-like paper is made, and mats are manufactured from 

 their fibres. A kind of sago is obtained from the pith of 

 the stem, and oil is pressed from the seeds. The long stems 

 are split longitudinally and, freed of the spongy interior, 

 are used as gutters, while from the hard rind-like exterior 

 rim beautiful canes and many small objects are made. 

 Another West Indian species, Oreodoxa regia, the Royal 

 Palm, is a tree often one hundred feet high, with a trunk 

 which is often largest near the middle, but otherwise gen- 

 erally resembles the Cabbage Palm and is equally graceful 

 and beautiful. This species, which is common in Cuba, 

 extends into southern Florida, where it inhabits two or 

 three hummocks on Rogue's River, about twenty miles east 

 ofCaximbas Bay on the west coast, Long's Key and the 

 shores of Bay Biscayne near the mouth of Little River. 

 The presence of a lofty Palm in southern Florida was 

 hinted at more than sixty years ago, and the fact is men- 

 tioned in the preface to Nuttall's North American Sylva, but 

 it was not until 1859 that this Palm was known to be Oreo- 

 doxa regia. In that year Dr. Cooper found it on Bay Bis- 

 cayne, and twenty years later Mr. A. H. Curtiss established 

 the fact of its presence on Rogue's River and Long's 

 Key. 



The portrait of a young tree of this species near the shores 

 of Bay Biscayne appears in our illustration on page 155 of 

 this issue. It is made from a photograph for which we 

 are indebted to Mr. James M. Codman, of Brookline, Mas- 

 sachusetts ; and, although it does not display the loftiness of 

 the full-grown tree, it shows the slender stem and graceful 

 head of the most beautiful of the Palms of the United 

 States. 



The next genus, Pseudophoenix (see vol. i , p. 353, fig. 55), 

 is monotypic and confined to two of the southern keys. It 

 is a small and not particularly handsome tree, with long, 

 arching, pinnate leaves and large orange-scarlet, usually 

 three-lobed, fruits. The flowers of this species, of which 

 there are probably not more than two or three hundred 



individuals in existence, unless it grows elsewhere than in 

 Florida, are still unknown. 



The last of our genera, Thrinax, is exclusively West In- 

 dian and Floridian, with a few species of small trees and 

 shrubs distinguished by large handsome fan-shaped leaves 

 often silver}'- white on the lower surface, minute flowers, 

 with calyx and corolla confluent into a short cup, and 

 small fleshy or dry fruits. The Florida species are not well 

 known, and there are probably four arborescent species oil 

 the keys, although at present no other North American 

 trees are so little known as this group of Palms. 



At a recent meeting of the West Virginia Academy of 

 Science a committee was appointed consisting of Dr. 

 A. D. Hopkins, Chairman ; Dr. J. L. Goodknight, President 

 of the West Virginia University ; Dr. J. A. Myers, Director 

 of the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station ; 

 Judge Okey Johnson, Dean of the Law Department of West 

 Virginia University, and L. C. Corbett, Professor of Agri- 

 culture and Horticulture, West Virginia University, to inquire 

 into the subject of forest protection, and draft bills for the 

 establishment of a system of forestry reservations in the 

 middle Alleghenies ; the bills to be submitted to Congress 

 and the state legislature. 



The committee state that by referring to a map it will be 

 seen that there is an area in the middle Allegheny Moun- 

 tains, principally in West Virginia, but extending through 

 a portion of Maryland and Virginia, and into Pennsylvania 

 and North Carolina, in which the sources of a number of 

 important rivers are found, namely, the Monongahela, 

 with its tributaries ; the Elk, Gauley. Guyandotte and Big 

 Sandy, all of which belong to the Ohio River system ; the 

 principal tributaries of the Potomac and James, and also 

 the source of the Tennessee River. In addition to this 

 important system of river sources, the region embraces 

 possibly a million and a half acres of virgin forest, with a 

 considerable area of cut-over brush and waste land. Much 

 of the continuous forest .area lies in large b.odies, and con- 

 sists largely of Black Spruce, Hemlock, White Pine and 

 valuable hardwood timber, making it a region of extreme 

 importance, not alone to the states in which it occurs, but 

 to the entire region drained by the several rivers men- 

 tioned, embracing a large portion of the United States east 

 of the Mississippi River. 



It is, therefore, evident that the protection of the forests 

 in this region is a matter worthy of consideration by the 

 Secretary of the Interior, the Forestry Inquiry Commission 

 of the National Academy of Science, the Rivers and Har- 

 bors Committee of Congress and the Representatives in 

 Congress from West Virginia, to whom resolutions have 

 been sent reciting the dangers to the forest and recom- 

 mending prompt action. 



The committee further states that it will hold itself in 

 readiness to furnish, as far as may be, any information 

 regarding the region embraced in West Virginia, and will 

 gladly cooperate with other academies of science, scientific 

 and forestry associations and individuals, in obtaining and 

 presenting facts bearing upon the subject. We need hardly 

 add that we are in full sympathy with this movement. 

 This journal has repeatedly advocated the establishment of 

 a reservation to preserve a portion of the southern Appa- 

 lachian forest, so rich in the variety and magnitude of its 

 trees and so incalculably valuable from its position. 



Some Native Ornamental Grasses. — I. 



IN the temperate zone grasses are, next to forests, 

 Nature's chief decorative material. With them she 

 covers the dark earth and colors half the landscape. But 

 apart from their assthetic value when growing together in 

 meadow or greensward, individual grasses have a beauty 

 that is not half appreciated. For grace of form and delicacy 

 of coloring many of our native grasses are full worthy of 

 cultivation, although but few of them have received the 



