FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
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park with a leaf-crown fully 30 feet in 
diameter. Seats were placed all around 
the massive trunk, and I was at once 
convinced of the fact that it makes an 
ideal park tree for sub-tropical regions. 
Phoenix tenuis seems to be a more slen¬ 
der form of this palm. I have a few 
hybrids between this species and Ph. 
dactilifera which I raised from seed com¬ 
ing from the Riviera. They are quite 
massive, bluish-green, with a wreath of 
small suckers all around the bases. Hy¬ 
brids of this palm and Ph. sylvestris are 
very massive, but also very variable, no 
two being alike. 
We now have to consider the tender 
species of Date Palms. The very beau¬ 
tiful and more elegant, they cannot com¬ 
pare in massiveness and grandeur with 
the hardy species. They all can be 
grown successfully in the orange belt. In 
my garden the entire leaf-crowns of most 
all the species are now and then cut back 
by frost when the thermometer falls to 
20 degrees Fahrenheit. Though the 
heart is in such cases usually lost—I 
have frequently pulled it out as a rotten 
mass—they soon recuperate, forming a 
new crown in a short time. 
Phoenix reclinata, Jacq. Of this fine 
African species there are quite a number 
of distinct varieties in cultivation which 
have not been admitted to specific rank 
by botanists. It is now generally con¬ 
ceded that Phoenix spinosa, Schum. and 
Ph. Zanzibarensis, Hort, belong to this 
species, though these and several others 
have to be considered as distinct local 
forms. Some of these varieties are sin¬ 
gle stemmed, others show a more tufted 
growth, often five or six stems springing 
up from one root-stock. Not quite as 
hardy as the large growing species, Ph. 
reclinata is found in magnificent speci¬ 
mens in the gardens of Mr. E. H. Hart, 
at Federal Point and in the grounds of 
Mr. Theo. L. Mead and my own. Beau¬ 
tiful specimens also can be seen in sev¬ 
eral gardens of Orlando. The long 
plume-like leaves are so much reclined 
that they gracefully hang down, the lower 
ones almost touching the ground. The 
finest specimen which I ever saw grows 
in Mr. E. N. Reasoner’s nursery at 
Oneco, Fla. It is about 30 feet high 
and a picture of tropical beauty. Young 
plants are easily lost by a strong freeze. 
Therefore a protection of pine-needles 
is necessary, or pine-boughs must be 
placed over young and newly set spe¬ 
cimens. Soil banked around such 
plants also proves an excellent protec¬ 
tion. 
Phoenix Senegalensis, Van Houtte, as 
growing in my garden, is certainly not 
synonymous with the former, being en¬ 
tirely different in habit and growth. It 
is a very dense, soft-leaved, deep-green 
Date Palm, growing in very large and tall 
clumps or tufts. A specimen in my gar¬ 
den, about twelve years old, has reached 
a height of about 20 feet with very thiick 
stems about 8 feet high. The spatlie 
and flower-spikes are bright yellow. 
While the former species comes from 
South Africa, this one has been intro¬ 
duced from the region of the Senegal 
and other tropical places of Central 
Africa. It is very tender, but is well 
adapted to all the gardens of the orange 
belt. 
Phoenix Leonenesis, Lodd, another 
palm from tropical Africa, is one of the 
most distinct and beautiful of the fam- 
