Ornamentals. 
THE PRINCES OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM IN OUR FLORI¬ 
DA GARDENS. 
By H. Nehrling. 
I. 
Palms! The very word creates vi¬ 
sions of beauty and magnificence in 
our minds. Groups of palms! Ave¬ 
nues of palms! Forests of palms along 
our streams and bordering our clear 
water lakes! Thickets of palms in our 
flat woods! Groves of Cocoanut Palms 
on the East Coast! Royal Palms on 
the borders of the Everglades! Florida 
is the land of palms. They are in¬ 
separably connected with this land of 
flowers, clear water lakes, invigorating 
breezes and bright sunshine. The 
word “palm” stands for all that is noble 
and grand in the plant world. Linnaeus 
called them the “princes of the plant- 
world.” And, indeed, they are a royal 
family, glorying in isolation, proudly 
waving their graceful foliage in the 
breezes of a tropical landscape. Not 
all the members of the tribe, however, 
show this nobility and grandeur. As 
in every-day life, they have—like 
many noble families—low connections 
and poor relations. It is only neces¬ 
sary to allude to our proud and elegant 
Cabbage Palmetto on one side and its 
congener, the lowly Saw Palmetto, on 
the other. Both reveal a very strong 
and unmistakable family likeness. But 
how very different are both! 
Systematic botanists tell us that in 
their external structure, as well as in 
their internal organization, palms ap¬ 
proach nearest the grasses—plants 
which have been termed by Linnaeus 
the “plebejans” of the order. Super¬ 
ficially viewed, this appears a rather 
distant relationship. In making com¬ 
parisons, however, we must not select 
the Cabbage Palmetto and the Bermu¬ 
da grass for examples, but, replacing 
the latter by the giant bamboo, we im¬ 
mediately see the truth of the above 
statement. And, indeed, palms and 
bamboos are the greatest attractions 
of our Florida gardens. Grown side 
by side, they create unique tropical 
effects, charming pictures of beauty 
and poetry not obtainable by other 
plants. 
The chief feature of the palms con¬ 
sists in the cylindrical trunk, crowned 
by a mass of either plume-like or fan- 
io 
