146 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
shaped leaves. Our native palmettos 
belong to the last group, while the 
Date Palm, the Royal Palm and the 
Cocoanut Palm have pinnate or plume¬ 
like leaves. The different species vary 
in height from a few feet to a hundred 
and more. Some are stemless, but the 
great majority have slender tall trunks. 
In some species the diameter of the 
stem, which does not vary very much 
in its whole le ngth, is thick and mas¬ 
sive, in others, slender and polished, 
while some of the smaller species have 
trunks not thicker than a walking 
stick or a pen holder. Most of the 
palms have a single stem, not produc¬ 
ing any side shoots at all ; others send 
up quite a number of stems from one 
root-stock. The trunks are sometimes 
smooth or ringed, but more frequently 
they are covered with the old bases of 
the fallen leaves and sometimes they 
are armed with formidable spines. In 
some cases the leaves fall to the ground 
as they decay, leaving a clean scar, in 
most cases, however, they are persis¬ 
tent, rotting slowly away and leaving 
a mass of fibrous stumps attached to 
the upper part of the stem. This rot¬ 
ting mass next to the trunk forms an 
excellent material, a kind of a peaty 
soi 1 , for ferns, orchids, many tillandsias 
and arads, which form an exceedingly 
decorative feature on what would oth¬ 
erwise be an unsightly object. Thus 
nature gives us a hint how to decorate 
the bare stems of our garden palms. 
The sheathing margins of the leaves 
often break up into a fibrous mass, 
sofetimes resembling coarse cloth and 
sometimes bast or even horse hair. 
The climbing palms are very remark¬ 
able. These are the Ratang Palms, 
which supply the rattan from which 
the seats, etc., of our cane chairs are 
made. Naturally very prickly, these 
stems, by means of reflexed hooks, 
with which the ribs of the leaves are 
provided, climb high up into the lof¬ 
tiest forest trees. All the species of 
the genus Calamus of the Old World 
and of the genus Desmoncus of tropi¬ 
cal America are climbing palms. The 
stems of these “vary in size from the 
thickness of a quill to that of a wrist, 
and where abundant they render the 
forest almost impassable. They lie 
about the ground coiled and twisted 
and looped in the most fantastic man¬ 
ner. They hang in frestoons from 
trees and branches, they rise suddenly 
through mid air up to the top of the 
forest, or coil loosely over shrubs and 
thickets like endless serpents. They 
must attain an immense age, and ap¬ 
parently have an unlimited power of 
growth, for some are said to have been 
found which were 600 or even 1,000 
feet long, and, if so, probably are the 
longest of all vegetable growths.” 
(Wallace on “Tropical Nature.”) 
The leaves of many palms are of im¬ 
mense size even under cultivation. A 
specimen of the Cohune (Attalea Co- 
hune) in Horticultural Hall, Fair- 
mount Park, Philadelphia, not yet hav¬ 
ing formed a trunk, has pinnate leaves 
30 feet long. Those of Manicaria sac- 
cifera of Para are 30 feet long and five 
feet wide. They are not plume-like, 
but entire and very rigid. Some of the 
pinnate leaved palms are much larger, 
those of Raphia taedigera and Maximih 
iana regia being both sometimes more 
