JOURNAL. BOMBAY NATURAL HfST<>RY SOCIETY, 1890. 



in those parts of the garden. It is also here the fernery will gene- 

 rally be found. The Bombay ferneries are a peculiarity which 

 deserves a few words. The fact is that the climate is so congenial 

 for the growth of ferns, that nothing more than a slight protection 

 from the sun is generally wanted to make them succeed, though 

 naturally an increased moisture of the atmosphere is beneficial and 

 desirable. A simple shed constructed of rafters and roofed with a 

 loose wove of coir matting answers all purposes, especially if the 

 sides are covered with a light trellis-work covered with creepers. 

 Though simple in construction, comparatively inexpensive, and 

 cheap to maintain, such sheds can be made extremely picturesque, 

 and their interior, when tastefully laid out, occasionally with the 

 assistance of bits of rockery, old roots of trees, tanks or fountains, 

 often bids fair to rival or even surpass the best conservatories at 

 home. It is not a bad plan, as is sometimes seen, to leave the north- 

 side of the fernery open ; it greatly adds to the attractions of the 

 garden, and is perfectly safe as long as the cold north- wind is in 

 some way, as by a not too distant shrubbery, prevented from having 

 direct access to the plants. It is difficult to make only a limited 

 selection, among the great number of plants common to Bombay 

 gardens., of those that specially deserve to be pointed out as chief! v 

 contributing to the peculiar charms of our gardens. I shall, how- 

 ever, seek to draw the line so as not to tire you by the enumeration 

 of too many botanical names. The most striking of all plants in 

 Bombay are perhaps our magnificent creepers; it is difficult to 

 conceive an idea of a more gorgeous mass of colour than that dis- 

 played by the Bougainvilleas, when in full bloom, and how many 

 individual objections there may be to the particular colour of the 

 commoner kind, nobody can seriously deny its imposing effect, and 

 all will agree in admiring the brick-coloured variety. Not so evident 

 on account of its shorter period of flowering, but perhaps more 

 brilliant and graceful is the vivid orange-coloured Bignoaia venusta ; 

 less striking but graceful and charming the Antigonon, with its 

 masses of rose-coloured flowers. In the Thunbergia grandijiora and 

 T. lauri folia, the handsome large pale blue flowers are beautifully set 

 off by dense and elegant foliage. The rare white-flowered variety is 

 specially "harming. The large while-flowpred Beaumontia must 



