PLANTS OF DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA 
21 
palm and does not seem to do very well. 
It is slightly spiny, has elegant leaves 
with the broad segments raggedly trun¬ 
cate, and it grows quite rapidly in pots 
when young. 
Phoenix. The Date Palms. I have 
some 20 or more nominal species of this 
genus and there are no palms known to 
me which are any more satisfactory in 
every way for planting in Dade County. 
They all grow rapidly even when mere 
seedlings. They flourish in all soils from 
low salt marshes which are occasionally 
overflowed to the highest, driest pine 
land, and all will do well without ferti¬ 
lizer. They are dioecious, and a large 
proportion of my plants have proven to 
be males. The great clusters of creamy 
blossoms are quite attractive. A female 
P. humilis has borne fruit which has 
germinated and made fine young plants. 
As it is the only specimen of the species 
I have, and no other males of any 
species were in bloom anywhere near 
it at the time it flowered, it seems prob¬ 
able that it was self fertilized. P. cana- 
riensis is a majestic palm with a colossal 
trunk and leaves io to 12 feet long. 
P. sylvestris is fine, while P. roebelenii 
is the gem of the genus. It is very dis¬ 
tinct in appearance, with delicate leaves 
of a peculiar green, and rich yellow 
spines. According to W. M. in Bailey’s 
Cyclopedia of Americana Horticulture 
this has stems only two or three feet in 
height in 20 years. My best specimen, set 
out as a little plant about four years ago, 
and badly crowded and robbed by a 
Ficus elastica, without fertilizer, is now 
five feet high, has a trunk three feet high 
and five inches in diameter and is in 
bud for blossom. (For a fine article on 
“Phoenix in Florida” by H. Nehrling 
see the above quoted work, Vol. 111, p. 
1309). 
Raphia ruffia. I have this palm, but 
am not at all sure it will succeed. It 
grows very rapidly as a seedling, but 
does not seem to do well when larger. 
It is a fine species from Madagascar with 
immense, nearly erect, pinnate leaves and 
enormous heads of fruit weighing from 
200 to 300 pounds. 
Roystonea. Besides our native species 
already mentioned we have R. oleracea 
from the lower West Indies, a magnifi¬ 
cent palm growing to a great height and 
R. borinquena from Porto Rico. Both 
are doing well with me; the latter is 
growing very rapidly and promises to do 
better on the pine land than R. regia. It 
has a stouter, more fusiform trunk than 
regia and heavier leaflets. 
Stevensonia grandifolia. I have not 
been successful so far with this mag¬ 
nificent palm, largely owing to the fact 
that it seems to be very tender in a young 
state, but I hope to succeed with it later. 
Verschaffeltia, another fine palm, has 
also proved very tender and difficult to 
grow. 
Wallichia. I have had W. densiflora 
and W. caryotoides, but neither of them 
have succeeded and it is quite likely that 
our limestone soil does not agree with 
them. 
Palmate Leaved Palms. 
Corypha. I have had three species of 
this genus, C. umbraculifera, C. gebanga 
and C. macropoda, but none of them have 
done well with me. 
Chamserops. A eircum-Mediterranean 
genus of elegant palms. Probably only 
a single species exists in Europe, though 
botanists have made many nominal 
species. This is C. humilis, and a form 
from northern Africa which is more ro¬ 
bust has received the name of C. macro- 
carpa. I have fine large plants of the 
former and small ones of the latter, all 
of which are doing well. They are rather 
slow growing when young. 
Erythea edulis, a fine, densely leaved 
fan palm from Guadalupe Island, Lower 
California. So far it is a moderate 
grower, but is in perfectly healthy con¬ 
dition on pine land and is making a fine 
ornament. 
E. armata, the Blue Palm of Lower 
California is a still finer species. I have 
small specimens of it which promise well. 
Hyphaene. I have a single plant of 
H. shatan about seven feet high and 
beginning to form a trunk. The heavy 
curved petioles are black bordered and 
have very large, crooked, black spines 
along them, and the midribs are sharply 
recurved. The immensely thick blade 
is attached diagonally to the petiole. Two 
