498 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 143. 



spines gradually disappear. The leaves are large, cuneale- 

 obovate, bifid at the apex, with marginal divisions or seg- 

 ments, which are notched at the tip. The blade is rich 

 green, margined with orange and blotched with reddish 

 brown. In very young plants the orange-colored petiole, 

 midrib margin and blotches of the leaves are really orna- 

 mental. 



For the discovery of this Palm we are indebted to 

 Mr. Duncan, once a young gardener at Kew and after- 

 ward curator of the botanical garden at INIauritius. He 

 found the Palm in Round Island in 1855, and sent three 

 seedlings of it to Kew. He named it in compliment to the 

 Governor of ]\Iauritius, who did much to assist Duncan in 

 his botanical work. One of the three seedlings disappeared 

 from Kew in 1857 and reappeared in a Continental garden 

 in 1857, a circumstance which led Wendland to name the 



the Seychelles and the decidedly beautiful character of the 

 young plants. Like all, or nearly all, the Palms from the 

 Seychelles it requires a tropical stove temperature and 

 plenty of moisture all the year round. It is peculiar in 

 being so very spiny when small, and spineless when large; 

 it is also remarkable in the rusty red blotches on its leaves, 

 which might easily be mistaken for the marks produced 

 by insects ; indeed, I have heard of a plant being con- 

 demned by the judges at a flower-show on account of 

 these "unhealthy'' spots. 



Other Palms, which are endemic in the Seychelles and 

 monotypic, are Verschaffeltia, Roscheria, Nephrosperma 

 Deckenia and Lodoicea. the double Cocoa-nut. These are 

 all in cultivation at Kew and in other gardens where 

 Palms are in favor. 



London. W. WolSOn. 



Fi.e;. 84. — Part of a Reclaimed Swamp, near Clifton, New Jersey. — See pa,£;e 494. 



plant Phoenicophorium, or Stolen Palm, a name by which 

 it is still known. Another of the seedlings died, but the 

 third still remains, and is now one of the handsomest 

 specimens in the Palm-house. It is thirty feet high, with 

 a stem nine inches in diameter and eleven fine leaves, 

 each with a curved, channeled petiole four feet long, and 

 a broad entire blade seven and a half feet long by five feet 

 wide. This plant is now flowering for the first time. The 

 inflorescence is at first enclosed in a club-shaped woody 

 spathe three and a half feet long, which splits longitudi- 

 nally and falls off, exposing a branched panicle a yard 

 long clothed with bright yellow flowers. As the plant is 

 moncecious, it will probably produce a crop of fruits. A 

 figure of it has been prepared for the Boiaiiical Magazine. 



Stevensonia, or Phcenicophorium, is rare in cultivation, 

 notwithstanding that the seeds are easily procured from 



Cultural Department. 



Grafting Grapes. 



IN the vineyard districts of New York, the matter of Grape- 

 grafting is becoming an important one for the growers. 

 Many vineyards which are now in bearing consist of varieties 

 which, when planted, promised abundant returns. But all th« 

 promise was not fulfilled to the satisfaction of the grower. 

 There are many men who would be glad if their vineyards 

 were bearing other varieties of grapes than those now pro- 

 duced, and the question whether these vines could be grafted 

 with the desired varieties has been discussed with consider- 

 able earnestness. The Cornell Experiment Station has under- 

 taken to throw some light upon the matter, and during the 

 past spring several methods of grafting the Grape were tried. 

 Some of the methods which give the best results in Europe 

 were followed as well as some which are not in common use. 



I 



