133 
PARK AND CEMETERY 
Gymnocladus Canadensis (KentucKy Coffee Tree.) 
By Joseph Meehan, 
To the one unacquainted with the Gymnocladus Can- 
adensis who sees it in the winter season its long, al- 
most twigless limbs suggest anything but a good shade 
tree. Yet planters know that it is one of the best trees 
for that purpose. The lack of twigs is made up in 
having a profusion of bipinnate leaves, with .numerous 
pinnae, and which fill in the spaces twigs with leaves 
would occupy, until a tree amply equipped to give shade 
is the result. A look at the illustration will convince 
any one of this, it represents a fine shade tree. But 
those who have the trees to sell say it is not a tree to 
sell itself. The customer to be is rarely a visitor when 
the trees are in leaf. He comes at a season when the 
trees are dormant, and it requires the utmost confidence 
in the nurseryman to get him to take his word for it 
that the tree is one that will furnish ample shade. 
This tree, the Gymnocladus, stands alone in having 
but the one species, Canadensis ; so it is purely Ameri- 
can. It grows from New York to Tennessee, and 
makes a lofty growth. There are trees about Phila- 
delphia oFer 50 feet high, some of the first to be planted 
in this part of the country. The flowers are in race- 
mes, of a greenish white color, slightly fragrant, and 
are succeeded bv large pods, which contain large, dark 
brown seeds, as large as and thicker than Lima beans. 
These beans are exceedingly hard, so hard that it is dif- 
ficult to crush them. It is said its name, cofifee tree, come 
from the fact that the early settlers used the beans as 
a substitute for cofifee ; and this brings the thought that 
there must have been hard work to crush the beans. 
A more recent use is the glueing of them to picture 
frames and other woodwork, for ornamental purposes. 
The tree photographed stands in Fairmount Park, 
Philadelphia, where it is an object of much interest 
at all times when in leaf, and more especially when 
GYMNOCLADUS CANADENSIS IN FAIRMOUNT PARK, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
full of its large seed pods, which, as may be seen, it is 
now. 
This tree pushes into growth so late in spring that 
those unfamiliar with it think it is dead. But it comes 
at last. It is a tree easily transplanted; and, all in all. 
it can be safely recommended to all about to plant. 
Garden Plants Their Geog'raphy-CVI 
Pal males. Continued. 
Washingtonia in 2 species are found from San Ber- 
nardino Co. south to the Tantillas Mountains of lower 
California, and westward to parts of Arizona, South- 
ern Colorado, etc. W. filifera and W. sonorae gen- 
erally grow in small groups or singly in sheltered 
canyons. W. robusta, shown in the illustration, is the 
easternmost form and is said to be less hardy on the 
coast than the others. It is doubtful if the herbariums 
have material for the complete differentiation of these 
palms. Some European authorities have referred 
them to Pritchardia, a genus of 7 species found in 
the Hawaiian, Fiji and Potomou islands. 
Trachycarpus is given 4 species ranging over N. E. 
India, Burmah, China and Japan. They are mostly 
quite variable, and may be poor species. T. excelsa 
is the toughest and hardiest in northern climates of all 
known palms. It stands in the southern counties of 
the British islands quite well, and in various parts of 
the southern and southwestern states, although on 
the west coast of Florida and other moist regions it 
is less satisfactory. It was the only exotic palm that 
came through the zero frosts which played havoc along 
the Gulf coast a few years ago. In fact, a specimen 
stood the winters in a sheltered place at Washington, 
D. C., for several years. I don’t know that I have 
seen T. Khasyanus, but would well believe that cli- 
matal selection would modify such a palm. I had a 
number of specimens of T. excelsa on the Nilgiris 
from Fortune’s Chinese seed, and no two were alike, 
while individuals varied extremely. It bears removal 
remarkably well in climates adapted to it. 
Rhapis is another genus of palms from China and 
Japan which is given four or five species by botanists, 
probably without sufficient justification. R. flabelli- 
