The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-20
A PALM FIFTY FEET TALL.
Too Tall for Central Park Glasshouses.
 1t Had to Be Transplanted.

From the New York TiSes.
 A number of rare and 'aluable palms were secured last week by the New York Botanical Gardens and were placed on exhibition in the palmhouse. the cen tral and largest building of the conserv- atory range, Most of them were gifts from private collections, but by far the largest of the plants was obtained from the Central park eonseryatories by ex- change This palm is a fine specimen of Cocus Plumosa, which has attained a height of fifty feet and threatened to push its>way through the roof of the tall est building in the Central park range of glass houses. 1t has the honor of being the first plant to be given fixed posi- tion in the garden palmhouse, all it's neighbors being potted or else growing in large wooden tubs and boxes, while this plant was long since found to be too large and too vigorous grower to be so treated.
 It required seven men and a derrick to uproot it from it's position in the park eonservatories. but the gardeners of the botanical gardens managed to plant it in the palmhouse without a derrick. The work of uprooting, transporting and re- planting required nearly six days work. The plant is named from the plume-like grace of it's great leaves which remind one somewhat of the more familiar Ken tia palms, but are fully fifteen feet in length.
 The palm was planted directly in the soil and was surrounded with an attract i've bit of rockwork, which in turn has been called upon to nourish many vines, begonias and more typical roek-loving
 .fk. will have an opportunity to add fully thirty feet to it's height before 1t begins to feel oppressed for space.
 Two Neowashingtonia robusta palms received from c. M Hyde of Greenwich, Conn, are considered important acquisi- tions to the garden collection and attract much attention. In shape the trunk re- sembles a great egg, two feet or more in diameter at the base, with great c1us- ters of large fan leaves rising from the smaller apex on heavy stems, giving at least ten feet spread of foliage. Mary s. Ames presented q fine specimen of Aeon thorhiza aculeata twenty feet in height, it's slender trunk thickly beset with stout spines, some of them fully ten inches in length. This is another of the fan palms, the leaves more deeply fringed than most of the varieties. It came from the do- nor's conservatories in North Easton, Mass Of four palms presented by Ger aldyn Redmond, the most important is the Phoenix dacty1ifera, date palm ten feet in height Seven cacti, among them some fine examples of the Peruvianus monstrosus, nearly six feet in height, were also included in the collection from Miss Redmond's conservatories at Tivoli, N. Y. Although this cactus has been a favorite in private conservatories for some years, very few large specimens arc attainable. They bear handsome pink white flowers, five inches or more across the face The peculiar and ire quent interruption of the parallel ribs of the plant give 1t the appearance of being made up of a succession of short joints, and the singular appearance of the plant commands attention at all times.