336 TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANKAKEE 



iugs iire more for social intercourse and pleasure than for business. 

 We were taken up and down the big river on an elegant excursion 

 boat, driven in carriages over the parks, fair grounds, and zoological 

 gardens, taken out of the carriages and shown all the animals, birds 

 and curiosities, and at night taken to the theater and given reserved 

 seats. The most enjoyable thing to most of us was the ramble 

 through Shaw's botanic gardens, which I would like to tell about 

 but will not now impose upon _your time. 



The fift3-f ourth annual exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horticul- 

 tural Society, which was held in Horticultural Hall, Philadelphia, 

 the day before the opening of the nineteenth session of the Ameri- 

 can Pomological Society, was to me the most interesting and instruc- 

 tive of all. This was pronounced to be, by persons who ought 

 to know, the finest display ever made in this country of rare and 

 beautiful-leaved plants and artistic designs of cut-flowers. My first 

 impression, as I passed into the hall, was that I was entering a vast 

 tropical garden. A mass of bright-hued foliage burst upon the 

 vision. In long lines and in groups were arranged palm tree ferns 

 and other lofty tropical plants in almost countless numl)ers with 

 waving plumes and pendulous boughs, while the tables and floor 

 were almost hidden with plants of lower growth whose leaves rivaled 

 the brightest flowers in displaying all the colors of the rainbow. In 

 one corner of the hall was a large tank, m which was displayed a 

 collection of aquatic plants alone worth traveling many miles to 

 inspect. The historic Papyrus Anf/qnonfm, or paper plant of An- 

 cient Egypt, with its tall green stems and grass-like plumes, with the 

 no-less historic Nelunihiuni SpeciosHm^ or sacred lotus, of the same 

 people, afforded an elegant background in front of which were 

 arranged water lilies from all parts of the world. I cannot refrain 

 from here noting a very interesting peculiarity of this plant, the 

 lotus. The leaves are covered with a fine microscopic down, which, 

 retaining a film of air over the upper surface, prevents it froui being 

 wetted when water is poured upon it, the water rolling off in drops; 

 this has a very pretty appearance, the drops of water looking like 

 drops of molten silver. The Hindoos have a proverb founded on 

 this peculiarity of the leaves, to the effect that the good and virtuous 

 man is not enslaved by passion nor polluted by vice; for though he 

 may be immersed in the waters of temptation, yet, like a lotus leaf, 

 he will rise uninjured by them. 



In viewing this magnificent collectiou of water lilies one would 

 naturally first note the great contrast between the huge lilies of 

 Africa and the pigmy ones of China, with leaves only half an inch 

 in diameter. The' largest flower noted was a variety of the Nympha?, 

 of a pink color and about a foot in diameter, gracefully reclining 

 upon the water between green leaves, each two feet across. The big 

 leaves of this plant, however, Avere dwarfed in appearance by those 

 of the Victoria Regia floating near them. The enormous leaves of 

 this queen lily were four or five feet across, and it is asserted that 



