FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
157 
prolific, outrivalling all others in qual¬ 
ity. I have already alluded to the fact 
that the nomenclature of these garden 
palms is in a chaotic condition and it 
will require the painstaking study of a 
trained botanist to clear it up. Like 
almost all the other species, this is also 
a very elegant palm and perfectly 
hardy all over the state and along* the 
gulf coast. 
Cocos petraea , Hort. also comes from 
Southern Brazil. It is a very distinct 
plant with rigid leaves not as numerous 
as in other species. Their color is 
glaucous green. The long petioles are 
provided with blunt spines. My speci¬ 
men has not yet flowered. 
Cocos campestris, Mart. Stem slen¬ 
der and leaves short—not more than 
four feet long, very numerous, which 
gives the plant a dense aspect. This 
palm attains a height of only eight or 
nine feet and is well adapted to be 
planted in the foreground of palm 
groups. The fruit is creamy in color 
and not larger than a pea. About ioo 
to 150 are contained in one bunch. It 
is a fast grower and does well in the 
shade of tall trees. A specimen near 
a camphor tree and several magnolias 
has outgrown all others standing in 
full sun. Native home, Southern Bra¬ 
zil. 
Cocos Gaertneri, Hort. This is one 
of the very best of our garden palms, 
a fast grower, very elegant, with a 
dense leaf crown of rather erect 
fronds. My specimen is about fifteen 
years old. I raised it from seed which 
was sent me by the late Mr. Gaertner 
from Southern Brazil. He wrote me 
that the stems in its native habitat 
were mostly decorated with ferns and 
bromeliads and not infrequently with 
clusters of a fine cactus (Epiphyllum 
Gaertneri). The trunk is at present 
six feet high and is covered all over 
with several species of orchids, brome¬ 
liads, cacti, (Phyllocactus latifrons), 
ferns (Phlebodium aureum). It bears 
heavily and I have counted as many as 
980 fruits in one bunch. They are 
closely packed, of the size of a small 
plum, orange-yellow with a red cheek, 
very juicy, intensely fragrant and of 
an apricot flavor. Chickens and chil¬ 
dren are very fond of them, and so are 
opossums, raccoons, squirrels and blue- 
jays, not to mention the very injurious 
fish crows which mostly in swarms set¬ 
tle in the trees and destroy the entire 
crop in a very short time. This is a 
most beautiful palm, reminding in its 
shape very much of C. Datil, but it is 
not so massive. The leaves are about 
ten feet long. 
Cocos Yatay, Mart., with a trunk of 
about 10 to 15 feet in its habitat, South¬ 
ern Brazil. The beautiful, gracefully re¬ 
curved leaves are abount nine or ten 
feet long. Dr. Udo Dammer, the 
greatest living authority on garden 
palms, states that the leaves in full- 
grown specimens are 4.25 meters 
(about 13 feet) long. The spines on 
the leaf-stems are described as black, 
but in my specimens they are, like the 
entire leaf-stem, deep violet purple and 
the leaves arch gracefully to all sides. 
This species grows extremely well un¬ 
der the shade of oaks, grevilleas, mag¬ 
nolias, gordonias and bamboos in my 
garden. It has not yet flowered. 
