THE AMERICAN GARDEN. 



25 



for a few days, after which only a little 

 until the young shoots begin to appear, when 

 the plants should be carefully shaken out of 

 the old soil and potted back into five or six 

 inch pots, according to the strength of the 

 roots. 



The growth cut off the old plants affords a 

 quantity of wood for cuttings. These cut- 

 tings should be placed in either a frame, 

 propagating bench, or even out-of-doors in 

 small pots in a shady place. 



The old plants as they commence to grow 

 should be encouraged and repotted each 

 time, as soon as the pots get filled with 

 roots, up to the first of November, when the 

 same treatment should be followed as for the 

 year previous, excepting always that the 

 larger the plant the more training, tying, 

 and stopping will be required. 



In our next number we will 

 refer to some of the leading 

 varieties. 



PALMS AT HOME. 



Palms, so universally distributed over the 

 tropical regions of both hemispheres, are no- 

 where seen to greater advantage than in the 

 valley of the great river Amazon. Here grow 

 in profusion the most beautiful of the family, 

 for the Palms of the western hemisphere are 

 much more graceful and elegant than those 

 of the eastern. Very seldom are they found 

 in woods by themselves, but usually singly or 

 in groups, interspersed through the forest, 

 though occasionally they compose the chief 

 trees, as on many of the islands of the Ama- 

 zonian delta, which from a distance seem a 



HOUSE-PLANTS IN SUMMER. 



All plants intended for sum- ^ 

 mer decoration out-of-doors 'ft 

 should now be in their places, f t 

 after which the plants re- 

 maining inside should be care- 

 fully looked over, and any 

 that may need it should be 

 repotted, cleaned, and, where 

 necessary, neatly staked. 

 Greenhouses should never be 

 empty, as is often the case. 

 Amongst the plants most de- 

 sirable, and which are always 

 beautiful during the next three 

 months, are the fancy-leaved 

 Caladiums, some of the tender 

 Perns, Tuberous-rooted Bego- 

 nias and Gloxinias (an article 

 in The American Garden, in 

 a previous number, fully de- 

 scribes the treatment of the 

 last two plants), a few of the 

 most distinct Crotons, Maran- 

 tas, and Dracaenas should be 

 added, and when winter 

 comes, these can be taken 

 into warm rooms for house 

 decoration. To those who 

 have not before grown plants 

 i»the greenhouse during the 

 hottest months, this will be 

 a great pleasure ; and on 

 all occasions when any room decoration is 

 required, these plants can be arranged in dis- 

 tinct«and showy groups, such as cannot be 

 obtained in the arrangement of cut-flowers. 

 A good plan, and which saves labor in water- 

 ing, is to place the plants in pots two sizes 

 larger than the pot they are in, and to fill the 

 interstices with moss, covering over the rim 

 of the pot inside, and also the soil. 



Camellias and Azaleas are better outside, 

 in some shady or half-shady places. Be care- 

 ful never to allow these plants to become 

 dry, as nearly all cases of Camellia buds 

 drooping and Azalea flowers blighting come 

 from having been dry the previous summer. 



Hanging Baskets and Vases require to be 

 thoroughly watered, the stronger plants 

 pinched or tied, dead leaves and fading 

 flowers to be removed ; and if one plant 

 is crowding too much, remove ^altogether, 

 rather than have the whole out of shape. 



mass of the great Miriti Palm (Mauritia fa- 

 vosa). 



While some species are restricted to cer- 

 tain localities, — as, for example, the Piassaba 

 (Leopoldina Piassaba), which produces the 

 fiber of the same name, and which is found 

 only in a comparatively small region on the 

 river Negro, — others are very generally dis- 

 tributed over a vast extent of territory. 



Again, in walking through the woods, one 

 may for miles see only one species ; then in a 

 radius of a hundred feet he may find a dozen. 



Within a few miles around the little village 

 of Juraty, on the Middle Amazon, we col- 

 lected and described forty-three species. The 

 impression that generally prevails that Palms 

 are the giants of the tropical forest is erro- 

 neous ; for compared with many of the trees, 

 they, even the tallest, are mere pigmies. 

 Nevertheless, some are very large trees ; we 

 have seen a single leaf -stalk of the " Inaja " 

 (Maximiliana regia) which measured forty 

 feet in length, and one can imagine the grand 



effect of a mass of these immense fronds 

 springing from the top of a massive trunk 

 twenty-five feet high! The great feathery 

 fronds of the "Jupati" (Raphia taedigera) 

 often attain a length of fifty feet ; but these 

 are the exceptions, and usually the fronds 

 are not very long, nor are the trees very tall 

 compared with other tropical trees, though 

 in height there are also exceptions. Proba- 

 bly one of the first things which strikes the 

 traveler upon the Amazon strangely is the 

 comparative small size of the Palms. Yet, 

 withal, they are very grand, and the more 

 one sees them the more one is impressed and 

 delighted. In our experience, the most beau- 

 tiful Palm scenery in the whole Amazonian 

 valley is just above the little village of 

 Breves, which is at the westerly end of the 

 great island of Marajo, and 

 about eighteen hours by 

 steamer from Para. The Ama- 

 zon is here divided by innu- 

 merable islands, varying in 

 size from many miles in 

 length and breadth to only a 

 few hundred feet across. All 

 these islands, which are sub- 

 merged in the annual rise of 

 the river, are a mass of foli- 

 age — in fact, are an almost 

 impenetrable jungle. Here 

 one may see the tall India- 

 rubber trees, and many others, 

 the botanical names of which 

 1 f 111 If \ \ wou ld convey no meaning to 

 m" I I the general reader, and which 

 have no common names, all 

 closely knit together by climb- 

 ing vines and a dense mass of 

 foliage. Allamandas and Big- 

 nonias hang in long festoons 

 of yellow and orange flowers, 

 and the air is always redolent 

 with the rich spicy perfume 

 of millions of unseen blos- 

 soms. But varied as are the 

 beauties of the woods, Palms 

 are here their conspicuous 

 feature. They are chiefly of 

 three species — the " Miriti " 

 and "Jupati," which we have 

 before mentioned, and the 

 "Assai" (Euterpe edulis or 

 oleracea). The channels of 

 the river between these is- 

 lands are often very narrow, 

 but are very deep, so that large steamers 

 pass through them, and standing on the pad- 

 dle-box of the steamer one can often almost 

 toiich the projecting branches of the trees. 



These three Palms are probably as dis- 

 tinct in habit as three trees of the same 

 family could possibly be. The "Miriti" is 

 massive and stately. The "Assai" seems 

 the embodiment of graceful beauty. The 

 "Jupati," with little trunk, sends up im- 

 mense fronds of silvery foliage, which droop 

 gracefully, like the spray of a fountain. 

 These three Palms are grouped in every 

 imaginable combination ; there are millions 

 of them, and every turn of the river opens a 

 new scene of beauty. We have sailed among 

 these islands many times, and once saw them 

 under the light of a full tropical moon. It 

 was a scene of enchantment which words 

 are too weak to describe. 



It is not too much to say that to see the 

 Palm islands above Breves is worth a voyage 

 across the Atlantic. 



