The American Botanist 



VOL. XIX JOLIET, ILL., FEBRUARY, 1913 No. 1 



One month is pastj another is be^un. 



Since merri/ belts ranff out the di/in^ J/Gor, 

 J^nci buds of rarest ^reen be^in to peer 



yts if impatient for a warmer sun; 

 ytnd though the distant hilis are biea/c and dun, 

 Tjhe virgin snowdrop, like a lambent fire, 

 ^Pierces the cold earth with its ^reen-strea/ced spire. 



— Hartley Coleridge 



IN THE HOME OF THE FAN PALM 



By Charles Francis Saunders. 



I 'HE canyons of the eastern side of the San Jacinto 

 ^ IMountain, opening on the desert, hold a special in- 

 terest for the traveler as being the native habitat of the 

 California fan palm, which in cultivation forms such a con- 

 spicuous feature of the streets and lawns of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, as well as some parts of Europe — a tree of dignified 

 beauty, upon which science has bestowed the name of ]]\ish- 

 ingtonia in honor of the great first President. Of all these 

 canyons Palm Canyon is the one that best repays a visit, both 

 because of the beauty and luxuriance of the groves there, 

 because of its accessibility — its mouth is thirteen miles from 

 Palm Springs station on the Southern Pacific Railroad — and 

 because of the accommodations it offers the camper ; for camp 

 the visitor must, the region being wilderness pure and simple. 

 Palm Canyon, as well as some of the others, is now a portion 



