478 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of 1 m. 80 cm. Daring the winter of 1879-80 the intense cold 
made it lose all its young branches, but after a rather hard 
struggle for life, and though its trunk is quite deformed and 
hollow and its bark corroded, it managed to pull through, and is 
now as vigorous as ever. (Fig. 111.) 
Next to this comes the famous Chamarops lmmilis planted 
in 1595, and up to 1662 known by the Prefects (Directors) of 
this botanical garden by the name of Palma lmmilis ; later, 
about 1720, through Pontedera, this plant became known as 
Chamceriphe (Chamcsriphes tricarpos , spinosa , folio flabelli- 
formi) and only since about 1737, when Linnaeus in his “ Musa 
Cliffortiana ” called it Chamcerops , has it here become known 
under this its proper name. This Chamaerops is formed of 
twelve principal branches, measuring each about 65 cm. in 
circumference and reaching to a height of 9 m. 25 cm. As these 
proportions seem to be larger than those of this species in its 
wild state, this particular Chamaerops received the appellation 
of arborescens. The strange fact about the plant is that it 
seems to have already attained its maximum height in 1720, 
when Pontedera in his “ Anthologia sive de Floris natura ” 
spoke about this plant as being 9 m. in height, and having only 
three main branches, whereas in 1854 the number of branches is 
stated to have been nine ; whilst the height, since it reached its 
9 m., has hardly increased at all. (Fig. 112.) 
When Goethe came to Padua on September 27, 1786, this 
Palm attracted his supreme attention, and the thorough study 
he made of it served him as a basis for his “ Essay on the 
Metamorphosis of Plants,” published by him in 1790. Padua, 
grateful to him for this distinction, recalls this fact in the 
following inscription over the Palm-house :— 
Giovanni Wolfgango Goethe, 
Poeta e naturalista, 
di qua trasse nel MDCCLXXXVII 
il concetto e le prove 
della sua metamorfosi delle piante. 
Roberto de Visiani,* 
perche non mancasse ai posteri 
la palma che lo ispiro, 
ne riparava nel MDCCCLXXIY 
la vetusta gloriosa. 
