34 OKKAMENTAL FOLIAGBD PLANTS. 



extent was the notion of the impracticability of their culti- 

 vation carried, that in many cases (some of which came- 

 under our own notice in our younger days), when seeds 

 of these plants had been sent home, the time fQr planting 

 and space required for raising them was most grudgingly 

 spared, and we have actually known them cast aside as- 

 not worth one's being troubled with. Luckily we have- 

 now learned better, and have somewhat retrieved this 

 great error, although not to the same extent as our con- 

 tinental neighbours ; I am glad to see, however, since the- 

 publication of the first edition of this book, that the taste 

 for Palms has greatly increased. Those amateurs (and 

 there are many) who imagine Palms to be too large for 

 them, because they have only small or moderate-sized struc- 

 tures, are certainly not acquainted with the numerous and 

 elegant small-growing plants comprised in the genera Geo- 

 noma, Chamsedorea, Areca, and others, whose maximum 

 height is only a few feet ; but independent of the dimen- 

 sions to which even the largest Palms attain when mature, 

 all and any of them are exceedingly ornamental in a young 

 state, their noble and majestic foliage producing an 

 eminently tropical appearance ; nor do any of them rapidly 

 become too large to be accommodated in a medium-sized 

 house. They may also be employed with considerable 

 advantage for the embellishment of the drawing-room in 

 vases or jardinettes, or for the dinner table, and when they 

 have so far increased in size as to be no longer suitable for 

 such uses, nothing can be more effective for the -decoration 

 of entrance halls, corridors, or grand staircases ; indeed, it 

 is impossible to conceive any place requiring decoration 

 in which Palms of some kind could not be advantageously 

 introduced. 



Palms are amongst the easiest plants to cultivate witb 



