FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
147 
than 50 feet long. The fan-shaped 
leaves of the West 1 , Indian Cabbage 
Palmetto (Sabal umbraculifera) are 
eight to ten feet in diameter. 
I11 tropical countries the uses of the 
palms are so exceedingly important 
and so varied that it would fill volumes 
to go into detail. Suffice it to say that 
they furnish everything to the inhabi¬ 
tants of the tropics: food, cloth, houses 
and ornaments. We all know some¬ 
thing of the uses of the Cocoanut Palm 
and the Date Palm, but these are only 
two species while there are hundreds 
of other useful kinds. Sugar of the 
best quality is made of the sap of the 
Sugar Palm (Arenga saccharifera) and 
the Indian Date Palm (Phoenix syl- 
vestris), the latter a most beautiful 
palm of our gardens. “The sap which 
pours out of the cut flower-stalk of sev¬ 
eral species of palms,” says Alfred R. 
Wallace in Tropical Nature, “when 
slightly fermented, forms palm wine 
or toddy, a very agreeable drink, and 
when mixed with various herbs or 
roots check fermentation, a fair imita¬ 
tion of beer is produced. Other arti¬ 
cles of food are cooking oil from the 
Cocoanut and Baccaba Palm, salt from 
the fruit of a South American Palm 
(Leopoldina major), while the terminal 
bud or 'cabbage' of many species is an 
excellent, nutritious vegetable, so that 
palms may be said to supply bread, oil, 
sugar, salt, fruit and vegetables. Oils 
are made from several distinct species, 
especially the celebrated Oil Palm of 
West Africa, while wax is secured 
from the leaves of some South Ameri¬ 
can species (Copernicia cerifera, etc.). 
The resin called 'dragon’s blood’ is the 
product of one of the rattan palms. 
The fruit of the Areca Palm (Areca 
Catechu) is the 'betel nut’ so universal¬ 
ly chewed by the Malays as a gentle 
stimulant and is their substitute for 
the opium of the Chinese, the tobacco 
of the European and the cocoanut leaf 
of South America.” 
The so-called vegetable ivory is sup¬ 
plied by a beautiful plume-leaved palm 
(Phytelephas macrocarpa) of South 
America. 
Many of the most beautiful and most 
impressive palms are at present culti¬ 
vated in the palm houses of our large 
cities. The "Palmengarten” in Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main has a world-wide 
fame, not only as a scientific institu¬ 
tion, but also as a resort of pleasure 
and recreation. The largest scientific 
collection is found at Herrenhausen, 
near Hanover, over which the cele¬ 
brated palm specialist. Hermann 
Wendland, presided for half a century. 
In our own land the rare collection 
of magnificent palms in Horticultural 
Flail, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, is 
undoubtedly the finest in the country. 
This palm house is almost seventy- 
five feet high and many specimens 
reach quite the top of the glass roof. 
When I first saw the tall and majestic 
specimens of Fivistonia sinensis, Cocos 
plumosa, Ceroxylon andicola, Phoenix 
Canariensis, Seaforthia elegans, Atta- 
lea Colnine and many others in com¬ 
pany of the Norfolk Island pine (Arau¬ 
caria excelsa) and the Bunya-Bunya 
(Araucaria Bidwilli), large clumps of 
bamboos, clusters of screw pines (Pan- 
danus), masses of bananas, huge tree 
ferns, immense specimens of the glossy 
