Palmae. 25 
Pritcharia pacifica was first described in 1861 and the genus 
named in honor of W. T. Pritchard, author of Polynesian Remin- 
iscences, who was also British Consul in Fiji. 
The Fiji Fan Palm seldom attains a height of thirty feet, its 
trunk is straight, unarmed, and ten to twelve inches in diameter at 
the base. The crown is globular, and composed of about twenty 
leaves, the petioles of which are covered at the base with a mass 
of brown fibre. The blade of the leaf is fan-shaped, usually 
four and a half feet long, and three and a half feet wide. The 
flowers issue from the axils of the leaves and are enveloped in several 
very fibrous, flaccid spathes. The inflorescence never appears below 
the crown, but always in the axils of the upper leaves. The fruit 
is perfectly round, half an inch in diameter, and when mature is of 
a blackish color. 
The Fijians make the leaves into fans which are only used by 
the chiefs, w T hile the common people have to content themselves with 
fans made of a Screw pine or Pandanus. 
The fans are from two to three feet across and have a border 
of flexible wood. The Fijians never employ the leaves as a thatch, 
but the trunk is used for ridge beams. 
The Fiji Fan Palm was probably introduced into the Hawaiian 
Islands in the early seventies, by Dr. Hillebrand. It grows exceed- 
ingly well in Honolulu, and owing to its beautiful shape and leaves 
deserves to be more generally cultivated. It is found here and there 
in residential premises about the city ; the accompanying illustration 
shows a group of this palm in favorable circumstances. 
Washingtonia filifera H. Wendl. 
California Fax-Palm. 
Plate X. 
The genus Washingtonia consists of two or three species and a 
few varieties all of which may however belong to a single variable 
species. W. filifera seems certainly to be distinct from W . robusta 
H. Wendl.. but the status of the third species, W. sonorae Hort., is 
doubtful. All three are peculiar to North America, where they occur 
in the desert regions of Southern California, especially in what is 
known as the Colorado Desert. W. filifera is now commonly met with 
in cultivation, especially in the southern parts of the United States 
and in southern Europe. In Hawaii the species in question has been 
much planted about homes and parks, especially in Kapiolani Park at 
Waikiki. Confusion exists in regard to the nomenclature of this 
