1961 
shade, however, and planted in a very moist situation 
in soil containing a large proportion of leaf mold. As a 
house plant for the northern states, and for use- in fern 
dishes, it seems to me that this plant possesses unusual 
possibilities, and I strongly recommend it for trial. 
A year later, I found this same palm growing near Pochutla, in the 
state of Oaxaca, Mexico, and sent in a few seeds, to which were assigned 
S.P.I. No. 46783. In 1920, I was again in northern Guatemala. Being 
convinced by this time that the pacayito was adapted to house culture 
in the United States, and having been requested by the Office to se- 
cure a large number of plants, so that the species could be given even 
wider distribution than had yet been possible, I spent several days at 
the finca Mocca, where, through the courtesy of Robert W. Hempstead, 
and the aid of my Indian assistant, Victor Chiquin, I brought together 
a shipment of nearly two thousand fine young plants, together with 
seven ounces of seeds. This shipment was escorted to the coast, and 
dispatched from Puerto Barrios to New Orleans. It reached Washing- 
ton in good condition, and most of the plants were saved. They were 
grown for a year or more at the Plant Introduction Garden, Bell, Mary- 
land, and then distributed widely, to experimenters in Florida and Cali- 
fornia who desired to test them out-of-doors, and to people in the 
North who wished to try them as pot plants for house culture. 
At this writing, ten years after the first introduction of the 
species, it has shown its value in the United States to the extent that 
two nursery firms are attempting to secure by importation from Guate- 
mala large quantities of seeds or young plants. For open air culture 
in California and Florida it has not proved satisfactory; but as a 
subject for house culture in the North it is excellent. It should be 
remarked, however, that its cultural requirements are not yet fully 
understood. In sending it from Guatemala, I stated that it should be 
grown under shade, and provided with ample moisture. Later I observed 
that it grew on limestone soils, or in regions where such soils pre- 
dominated. In the United States, we have found that ordinary living 
room temperatures are quite favorable to its development, but the 
atmospheric aridity which frequently prevails during the winter months 
is apt to prove inimical. It does not require continuous shade, but 
tolerates it to a much greater degree than many other plants, 
Not until recently has the species been carried on our records 
under a specific name. A flowering specimen from the greenhouse at 
Bell, Maryland, was sent to Professor Guillaumin at the Museum d'His- 
toire Naturelle, in Paris, France, and shortly afterwards we received 
word that it had been identified as Chamaedorea elegans Martius. In his 
article on "Les Chamaedoreas Cultives," published in the Journal de la 
Societe Nationale d' Horticulture de France (June, 1918), Prof. Guillaumin 
