This section is from the book "The Standard Cyclopedia Of Horticulture Vol2", by L. H. Bailey. See also: Western Garden Book: More than 8,000 Plants - The Right Plants for Your Climate - Tips from Western Garden Experts.
(Greek words meaning oak and smooth inner bark). Palmaceae, tribe Areceae. Spineless pinnate palms, with slender medium caudices.
Leaves terminal, equally pinnatisect, the segments cuneate-oblong or linear, broadly oblique, submem-branaceous, 3- to many-nerved, the margins recurved at the base; rachis scaly, 3-sided; sheath long: spadix with a short peduncle and slender branches; spathes 2 or many, the lower one 2-crested. This genus contains a tropical palm, with very distinct wedge-shaped leaflets and ornamental scarlet fruits, borne every year. It flowers when only a few feet high, and is suitable for pot culture. - Species 12. Australasia and the Pacific isls.
The chances are that most of the plants now known to the American trade as D. olivaeformis are really D. appendiculata. The true D. olivaeformis is said to have been offered by a few dealers as Ptychosperma Rumphii. D. appendiculata was described and figured by William Watson, in Garden and Forest, mistakenly as D. olivaeformis, as explained in B.M. 7202. He adds, "Like all the palms of this section of the border, Drymophlceus requires a tropical moist house with abundance of water at all times." G.C. II. 24:394. The plant figured was about fourteen years old, 3 feet high, with leaves about 3 feet long. The plant takes about six months to mature its fruits.
Scheff. (Areca gracilis, Giseke, not Roxbg, or Thouars). stem 6-10ft.: leaves terminal, 5-6 ft. long, arching: leaflets 14-20, wedge-shaped, raggedly cut, serrate: spadix from between the leaves, short-stalked, about a foot long; the yellow buds and white flowers make an attractive contrast at the flowering season (June). Moluccas, New Guinea. B.M. 7202. G.F. 4:331. - The D. olivaeformis of most dealers not of Martius.
D. Mooreanus, Hort. "An erect-growing palm with grayish green leaves" - D. olivaeformis. Mart., not the trade plant of that name, has narrower lfts, than the above, and the fruit half immersed in the greatly enlarged perianth. Jared G. Smith.
N. Taylor, †
 
Continue to: