PALMS, 



297 



English gardens than by any other want, and he thought 

 this the more remarkable from the fact that the superb 

 collections of exotics grown in many parts of this country 

 are quite unrivalled. That the plants which combine 

 the qualities of dignity and grace as no others do^ should 

 be so neglected in 



a country where Fig. 131. 



vast sums are 

 spent upon Orchids 

 and almost every 

 other tribe of 

 exotics^ and where ^ ^ , 

 these are culti- Mf"^ 

 vated better than ^ 

 anywhere else^ is 

 indeed somewhat 

 singular. 



The Palms are 

 plants that we 

 know very little 

 about as a rule ; 

 but this is not at 

 all surprising, for 

 practically they 

 belong to a dif- 

 ferent world to 

 ours. The oppo- 

 sitesin every vein 

 of their structure 

 of our wiry twig- 

 ged and tortuous 

 Oaks and Elms_, 

 they are as far 

 removed from them geographically as structurally. Avoid- 

 ing the cold grim North, they luxuriate in the hottest 

 and moistest regions of the earth, spread for thousands 

 of miles along the banks of the Amazon and Orinoco 

 and their tributaries, running north all the way through 

 the Isthmus and Mexico, crossing the Mississippij and 



Cliamsedorea latifolia. 



