FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
177 
them, care for them in a proper way, and 
they will be a continuous source of the 
purest pleasure this life is able to give. 
They will be monuments to your memory 
long after you have gone and long after 
you have been forgotten. 
There are quite a number of tropical 
kinds that can be planted successfully 
wherever the orange, pomelo and lemon 
grow. I have already alluded to several 
such species, like Cocos plumosa, C. nu- 
cifera and others. The genus Acromia 
comprises a few such species which grow 
as far north as Winter Park and Lake 
Charm. They are all imposing and ele¬ 
gant palms, and the stems, as well as the 
leaves, are provided with numerous 
spines. All are common in the Amer¬ 
ican tropics and one species occurs as 
far South as Paraguay. This is Aero - 
comia Totai, Mart., a very fine and most 
elegant palm, being only sparingly found 
in a few of our best gardens. The first 
large specimens I saw in Mr. Theo. L. 
Mead’s garden, “Wait-a-bit,” at Lake 
Charm. The tallest and grandest are un¬ 
doubtedly found in the grounds of the 
Royal Palm Nurseries at Oneco, Fla. 
They are not quite as tall, but fully as 
beautiful as the tall specimens of Cocos 
plumosa standing not far from them. 
They have much more massive stems, 
however; the leaf-crown is denser and 
the leaves are shorter. I think Mr. 
Reasoner’s plants are about sixteen years 
old, having attained a height of about 
25 feet. They have grayish trunks, cov¬ 
ered with long, blackish, blunt spines, 
and the leaf-stalks, as well as the small 
leaflets, are covered on their underside 
with small, sharp, dark-brown thorns. 
This palm requires good, rich deep, ham¬ 
mock soil or flat-woods soil, but it will 
grow fairly well on high pine land if a 
rich compost and sufficient water is ap¬ 
plied. In Mr. Mead’s garden this spe¬ 
cies has endured a freeze of 18 degrees 
Fahrenheit, but it lost most of its fine, 
plume-like leaves, and, in my garden it 
has been subjected to almost the same cold 
without suffering much damage. It is 
one of the most common palms of Para¬ 
guay, where tons of its seeds are used 
in the manufacture of an excellent oil, 
and the meat of its nuts forms a favor¬ 
ite article of food among the Paraguay¬ 
ans. Mr. Mead deserves the thanks of 
all lovers of palms for the introduction 
of this fine species. Dr. Morong col¬ 
lected the seeds near Asuncion, and I 
think all our specimens were derived 
from these seeds. I do not think that the 
true A. Totai can be had in Florida to¬ 
day, but seeds could easily and in large 
quantities be imported from Asuncion, 
Paraguay. 
Aero comia sclerocarpa, Mart., the 
Groo-Groo Palm of the West Indies, is 
much more tropical and, therefore, very 
tender. Mr. Reasoner says that is is not 
hardy at Oneco, but it will unquestion¬ 
ably thrive in extreme South Florida. 
The same may be true of A. lasiospatha, 
Mart., the great Macau Palm of Vene¬ 
zuela, Colombia and Jamiaca. A. Mex- 
icana, Kano., from the cooler regions of 
Mexico up to 3,000 feet, will likely prove 
almost as hardy as A. Totai. It is a 
prickly palm, reaching 20 feet in height, 
growing in company of splendid Chae- 
madora Palms in the shade of oak- 
forests. (This may be identical with 
Astrocaryum Mexicanum, which see.) 
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