TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 81 



The roof of the front curtains will be glass, and they are intended for 

 the tender plant exhibit. The rear curtains have opaque roofs, except 

 sufficient glass to give an abundance of light for the fruit display. For 

 heating the dome alone by steam, it will take ten miles of 1^ inch pipe, 

 besides an additional amount for the front curtains. There are 59,631 

 square feet more of floor space in the hall, than in the combined horticult- 

 ural buildings at the Centennial, New Orleans, and Paris. 



The dome is 187 feet in diameter and 113 feet high on the inside, and 

 to overcome the dwarfing effect on plants, that would evidently be pro- 

 duced by its immensity, it is intended to construct a minature mountain 

 under its center, 40 feet high and 70 feet in diameter, and upon the sides 

 and top of this artificial rock-work, to set the largest specimens of palms, 

 bamboos, tree ferns, giant cacti, etc. Some grand examples, 40 feet in 

 height, have been donated for this purpose. Among this mass of exquisite 

 foliage, will be represented, by the use of incandescent electric lights, the 

 forms and tints, in colored glass, of flowers rarely seen in this country. 

 Over its sides, will fall in translucent sheets and ripples, the water for a 

 beautiful cascade, while the interior will form a cave, from the crystal side 

 of which will be reflected the brilliant lights of thirty electric arc lamps of 

 2,000 candle-power each. In recesses and for special effects, incandescent 

 lights will be placed within the cave, in order to observe the effects and to 

 test the endurance of different species under such conditions. It is hoped 

 to arrive at some definite and valuable conclusion by this experiment. 



In one of the courts of the building, basins will be made for exhibiting 

 Victoria Re^ia, nymphsea, and other rare aquatic plants. Incandescent 

 lamps will be arranged under the water to show effects not heretofore 

 attempted. In the other court, California and Florida will compete for 

 honors, with bearing orange groves. The former state will illustrate the 

 manner of irrigating their orchards, and the latter will intersperse bananas, 

 pineapples, and other semitropical plants, often cultivated in connection 

 with the groves of that state. 



The balance of the building will be devoted to collections of orchids, 

 crotons, cycads, dracrenas, aroids, and rare plants from every part of the 

 world, and to the fruit display. 



Space for at least 60,000 plates of fruit will be reserved for the grand 

 display which will take place in September. In this exhibit, it is intended 

 to keep out of the beaten paths of former expositions, and »adopt some 

 new methods. Long tables, with straight rows of fruit, are too monoto- 

 nous and will be avoided. It is intended to have the receptacles for the 

 fruit made in artistic forms of papier-mache, and supported in unique ways. 



The exhibit will be embellished with flowers and plants and made more 

 attractive by miniature representations of orchards, methods of cultivating, 

 irrigating, etc., in mountains and on plains, in tropical, and temperate 

 climates. Wax models of fruits out of season, and of those too tender to 

 transport from distant lands, will illustrate, in form and color, at least, 

 specimens unfamiliar to most of the visitors who will attent the Exposition. 



Experiments wiil be made with glass cases through which condensing 

 refrigerator pipes will be run, and the temperature kept at a proper degree 

 to preserve, as long as possible, berries and other perishable fruits. The 

 difficulty in the successful operation of this plan may be the condensation 

 of moisture on the gl-iss sufficiently to obscure the view. It is said, how- 

 ever, this can be obviated by making the glasses double and leaving some 

 space between them. 



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