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watered (saturated) placed in a moderately damp situation and 

 afterwards sufficiently sprinkled so as never to be over wet or too 

 dry. Palm seeds when planted must be guarded from rats and 

 mice, and white ants, the surface soil inspected, and excessive damp 

 and fungus removed. The growth is often at first very slow (this 

 is especially noticeable in rattans) but after a year or two the 

 growth increases much more rapidly. 



Seedlings. — With most of the best known palms seedlings may 

 be described as fairly hardy and only ordinary attention is necessary 

 to produce strong plants, most failures occur through excessive 

 damp or watering, and the moisture remaining in the axils of the 

 leaves or the surface soil is too damp in which case the seedling 

 perishes. A few species of palms have been introduced to cultiva- 

 tion by seedlings collected in the jungle of which seeds have not 

 been procurable. Owing to the different conditions under which such 

 seedlings have germinated care must be taken to wrap the roots 

 in mud immediately on lifting them and the seedlings dug up with 

 a good ball of earth attached to them. The little plants must be 

 kept very moist till they can be planted, and not allowed to get dry 

 by exposure to the sun or they speedily perish. Some jungle 

 palms stand transport fairly well, especially rattans and with some 

 species it is the only way to get them. 



Re-potting. — As soon as seedling palms have filled their pots 

 with roots,, the young plants should be transplanted or re-potted 

 into single pots and a strong compost used. Some loamy soil, well 

 decayed cow manure and leaf-mould, some sand and burnt earth, all 

 well mixed together and passed through a moderately coarse sieve. 

 Let the drainage be sufficient and placed carefully. All loose and 

 old sour soil removed from the plants, the roots inspected if sound 

 and free from pests, keep lightly syringed for a few days and water 

 sparingly until the plants are established. Palms succeed be. c ,t 

 when potted or planted deeply, unlike flowering plants the lower 

 roots of palms in thickening raise the plant, and the surface or 

 adventitious roots grow upwards. In re-potting or tubbing very 

 strong plants of which the roots have become tightly bound together 

 it is not necessary to disturb the ball or place new drainage under- 

 neath it, but a little additional drainage could be placed round the 

 base, and although the plants may appear deeply tubbed at first the 

 surface roots will soon appear on the top. 



Selection. — Many palms particularly tall erect growing species 

 make only poor pot or tub specimens and are only seen to advan- 

 tage when cultivated in the open, other palms not only make hand- 

 some tub specimens but are quite unsuited for outside culture in 

 Singapore, of such the following may be mentioned : — Iguanura, 

 Teysmannia, PritcJiardia, Licuala grandis, Licuala ferrugirca, 

 Rhapis humilis, Thrinax, and Hyphoene. 



For table and house decoration the following are best to culti- 

 vate : — Ptychosperma McArthnri, Ptychosperma Sanderiana, Rho- 

 paloblaste hexandra, Chrysalidocarpus lutescens, Heterospatha elata^ 

 Stevenson ia grandifolia, Verschaffeltia splendid a, Hyophorbe amari- 



