PALMS AND TROPICAL PLANTS 



INN./EUS always refers to the palms as the 

 kings or princes of plant life. I cannot question 

 the fitness of the term. Rising superior to the 

 petty things of the field, graceful, gracious, 

 and sometimes really glorious, it seems as if the 

 palm-tree could never be downed by adverse circumstances, 

 and like many an ancient line of kings, the only way to get it 

 out of the world would be to behead the last representative of 

 line. The true palms are practically divided into two great 

 sections or divisions, and for our purpose it is sufficient to 

 know them thus: as the fan-leaved, and the pinnate or 

 feathery-leaved palms. The varieties best known in this 

 country are the Washingtonia, filifera or common fan-palm, 

 which is a native, and the Phoenix, of which our best-known 

 representative is the Phoenix dactylifera or date-palm, and 

 the Phcsnix canadensis, that most glorious specimen of the 

 palm family which our misguided home builders persist in 

 putting in their "two-by-four" dooryards. Of the Phcsnix, 

 there are some thirty-four or thirty-five varieties to be seen 

 in different portions of California, and they are especially 

 interesting to the human race because they are great food- 

 producers. Pharnix canadensis is a magnificent tree. Phaz- 

 nix reclinata is especially graceful. Phamix rupicola and 



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