THE LADIES’ FLORAL CABINET. 
123 
graceful after their kind. Perhaps the best known of the 
hardy palms is Latania Borbonica, with large fan-shaped 
leaves of a lively green, with drooping marginal segments. 
A plant about two feet high, with its broad, spreading 
habit, affords a charming spectacle, whether planted in a 
vase or with its pot plunged into the earth. This plant is 
admirable for house-culture ; the dry air of an ordinary 
parlor, fatal to so many flowering plants, seems to suit 
the palm exactly. Under favorable circumstances it at¬ 
tains a height of twenty-five feet. Native of the Isle of 
Bourbon. 
Phoenix dactylifera (date palm) is a handsome palm 
with a rugged stem and pinnate dark-green leaves, the 
divisions very pointed, and standing out straight. It is a 
native of Africa and India. 
Seaforthia elegans is as elegant in habit as its name 
implies. It is a native of Australia, where it grows to a 
height of thirty feet, but in cultivation it rarely attains its 
full size. The leaves are from two to ten feet long, divided 
into numerous narrow leaflets. The whole plant is per¬ 
fectly smooth and destitute of spines. The young plants 
are extremely beautiful for table decoration. 
The chamaedoreas are a family of Mexican palms, hav¬ 
ing smooth, slender stems like the bamboos, surmounted 
by tufts of pinnate leaves. They are well fitted for plac¬ 
ing among masses of medium-sized plants, above which 
their graceful heads appear to much advantage. Some of 
the most ornamental species are C. elegans, C. elation and 
C. Ernesli-Augusti. 
Chamcerops Palmetto is the well-known Palmetto palm 
of our Southern States. It is a slow grower, but pictur¬ 
esque and hardy. Grown in a tub, like a century plant, it 
may stand out during the summer, and placed in a cool 
greenhouse for the winter. It grows to a height of fifteen 
feet, and has fan-shaped sea-green leaves, divided into 
long narrow segments. The stem is without prickles. 
Chamcerops Fortnnei is the Chusan palm. It is of 
short, stout habit, with a proluse network of fibre, like 
coarsely woven canvas around the bases of the leaves and 
crown. The segments of the fan-like leaves are broad, 
the stems short and thick, without spines. 
Chamcerops excelsa is a handsome species similar to the 
above, but taller and more slender; the leaf-stalks are 
armed with tooth-like spines. 
Corypha Australis is a beautiful Australian palm, form¬ 
ing an attractive subject for the subtropical garden from 
May to October. The leaves are nearly round, of a shin¬ 
ing dark green, divided round the edge into narrow seg¬ 
ments, and supported by spiny leaf-stalks, from two to 
ten feet long. It requires abundance of water, and a 
warm, sunny position. 
Areca sapida is a New Zealand palm, with a beautiful 
crown of bright-green pinnate leaves, which are tinged 
with bronze when young ; the young leaf-stalks are gray¬ 
ish red. It is of easy culture, requiring plenty of water. 
We cannot take leave of the palms without mentioning 
the caryotas, C. urens and C. sobolifera, which are of 
light and graceful growth, having a slender stem crowned 
by a spreading tuft of shining light green bipinnate leaves. 
They are natives of the East Indies, and require to be 
potted in a mixture- of loam and leaf-mould, with a little 
sand; water to be supplied liberally during the grow¬ 
ing season. They will stand outside from June to Oc¬ 
tober. 
Ficus elastica, the india-rubber plant, is too familiar to 
need description; its simple culture renders it a favorite 
with amateur gardeners. Its shining leathery leaves and 
robust growth make it very suitable for mixing with bright- 
colored masses of flowers or foliage. But the handsomest 
of all the fine-leaved plants for garden use is the great 
Abyssinian banana, Musa ensete. It attains a height of 
twenty feet with a stem three feet in diameter. The 
huge oblong leaves are bright green, with a red midrib ; 
they are nearly erect, and often grow to be ten feet long 
and two wide. The fruit of this species is not edible 
like the banana, Musa paradisiaca, or plantain, Musa 
sapie 7 ititm, but its appearance is grand, and the leaves 
stand the winds with but little laceration, when the foli¬ 
age of other varieties is often split into shreds. It may 
be housed through the winter in any greenhouse afford¬ 
ing the requisite room, and will bear well the heat and 
draught of a hall, though its size renders it more suitable 
for the apartments of Gog and Magog than those of ordi¬ 
nary mentals. E. L. Taplin. 
THE IRIS. 
“ Strowe mee the grounde with Daffadown-Dillies, 
And Cowslips and Kingcups, and loved Lillies : 
The prettie pawnee, 
And the chevisaunce, 
Small match with the fayre Flowre Delice.”— Spenser. 
HE iris or fleur-de-lis is one of the commonest and 
showiest of garden plants, and, fortunately, one of 
the easiest to grow. As most of us know, it is the em¬ 
blem of France. Irises are widely distributed throughout 
the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, and 
particularly abound in Mediterranean Europe, the Cau¬ 
casus, mountains of Turkey and Persia, in Siberia, Japan, 
Northern China and Northern Africa; and our own 
country North and South, East and West, adds consid¬ 
erably to the list of species. 
The genus comprises many species, and some of these 
numerous varieties. Most of the species, for instance the 
German irises, have fleshy prostrate rhizomes; some, as 
Kaempfer’s, grow in dense tufts ; others, as the Spanish 
iris, have bulbous roots, and tuberosa has small digitate 
tubers. 
The bulbous irises are exceedingly pretty, and some of 
them, as the Persian and reticulata, deliciously fragrant. 
They also include the earliest bloomers of the genus. In 
my diary I find Iris Hislrio came into bloom April 9; 
/. Kolpakowskiana, April 12, and /. reticulata and its 
