18 



long, running' east and west, with a front both to the north 

 and south ; the roof will be constructed entirely of iron, 

 glazed with patent sheet glass, and will have the form of a 

 Gothic arch. The west wing, rather more than 180 feet 

 long and 27 feet high, has been contracted for by Messrs. 

 D. and E. Baileys of Holborn, and will probably be com- 

 pleted by the middle of May. The whole range, when 

 executed, will be one of the most extensive in the world. 

 No association of individuals has ever introduced so large a 

 quantity of beautiful and useful plants into this country, as 

 have been procured by the funds of the Horticultural Society 

 of London ; but those plants have necessarily been confined 

 very much to hardy species, in consequence of the want of 

 extensive glass-houses. It is now to be expected that green- 

 house and stove plants, especially the former, will become a 

 great object of attention with the Society ; the effect of which 

 will doubtless be to improve the ornamental character of 

 tender plants in the same degree as that of hardy collections. 

 Few persons know how many objects are within their reach, 

 the beauty of which is far beyond any thing now in our 

 gardens, and that only require space in which to grow them. 

 The following account of the Pisonai, wdiich it is to be hoped 

 will be one of the first novelties established in the Society's 

 new conservatory, will serve to illustrate this assertion. 



" The Pisonai Tree. — This is one of the most magnificent 

 trees, both in foliage and flower, perhaps that exists. It 

 appears to have been introduced during the Inca dynasty 

 into the vallies of Cusco, where, in a climate the mean tem- 

 perature of which is 60° Fahr., it attains such a size as I 

 have never witnessed in the largest of our European forest 

 trees. It was generally planted about villages ; in that of 

 Yucay, the country residence of the latter Incas, eight leagues 

 from Cusco, there exist specimens of it five fathoms in cir- 

 cumference, and nearly seventy feet high ; the foliage, of a 

 deep green, is thick and spreading, the leaf in shape some- 

 thing like the Cinchonas ; it flowers in December, and is 

 then one mass of carnation colour. I think it might be 

 naturalized in the south of Europe, and in our greenhouses ; 

 the elevation of the places where I have seen it grow to the 

 greatest size, above the sea, are respectively 9500 and 9680 

 feet." — Extract of a letter from J. B. Pentland, Esq. to the 

 Hon. W. F. Strangivays. 



