64 Milady's House Plants 



Foliage Plants Bear Flowers, Fruit and Seed 



Although the plants mentioned in the preceding 

 pages are called foliage plants, because their chief 

 beauty lies in their foliage, they all, as a matter of 

 fact, excepting the ferns, bear flowers and conse- 

 quently ftuit and seed. Some of the palms bear valu- 

 able edible fruit, such as dates, cocoanuts, etc., while 

 from others are expressed palm oil, sago and a host of 

 other valuable products. To the natives of all tropical 

 climes the palms furnish, besides food, lumber for 

 building, fibre for ropes, leaves for thatching and a 

 thousand other valuable articles of daily use. All 

 are raised from seeds which are imported in large 

 quantities by nurserymen here and in other northern 

 climes, to supply the market for house plants, con- 

 servatories, park decoration and so forth. 



Variegated and Green Foliage 



Variegated foliage is an abnormal condition and 

 most healthy plants revert in time to the original 

 green coloring. No variegated plant is as robust as 

 a green one of the same kind, although Pandanus 

 Veitchii and a few others that might be mentioned 

 seem to disprove both of the above statements. 



Fern Spores and Palm Seedlings 



Raising of ferns from spores is a delicate operation 

 and requires not only skill and experience, but special 

 greenhouse facilities as well. The growing of seedling 

 palms takes less skill but more time, so that with 

 some species five or six years must elapse before the 

 plant becomes of decorative size. In any case, it is 

 useless to attempt this part of business in an ordinary 



