with pinnated leaves, divided like the plumes of a feather. The two stoutest 

 Palms are the West Indian or Jamaica Fan-palms, and are a good example of the 

 second group, having palmate or fan-shaped leaves. So enormous are these 

 specimens that each plant, with its earth and tub, are calculated to weigh It tons. 

 Here, too, is the Date-Palm, producing the dates of commerce and of Scripture ; 

 also the plant producing the Palm-oil, now of so much importance. Sir William 

 took particular pleasure in exhibiting to us from the gallery, the Plectoxoma 

 elongata, presented by Dr. Willich^^which, with its luxuriant foliage and very 

 curious spring-stem, has the most singular mode of getting up in the world. The 

 spines are digitate, or united together like the fingers of the hands, or still more 

 resembling the wonderful conformation of the foot of the mole ; its leaves are of 

 vast length, and pinnated like the shafts of a feather, so long, indeed, that they, 

 as well as the slender stem, need support. Nature has come to the rescue ; the 

 main stalk of the leaf extends at the end into a lengthened slender tail, armed all 

 along ivith strong dejlexed hooks, by means of which, while running up among the 

 stems of other trees and plants, and catching hold of their branches, the foliage 

 and stem are propped in every position. In the young plant, these spines are 

 upright, and lie flat against the stalk of the leaf, not becoming reflexed till they are 

 called forth by the wants of the plant. Some bamboos have grown to the surprising 

 height of 68 feet in 5 months ; this includes a long period in their first stage, in 

 which they make little or no progress, but after they have attained a certain alti- 

 tude they rush up at the rate of 2, and often 3 feet a day. 



There was first exhibited the tree of the Vegetable-Ivory-Palm, from the nuts 

 of which so many ornamental things are now turned. It comes from Magdalena, 

 New Grenada ; it is named Phytelephas macrocarpa. The Wax-Palm, Ceroxylon 

 audicola, was discovered by Humboldt in the Andes of New Grenada ; the full- 

 grown stem is covered with a waxy substance, having the same properties as bees- 

 wax. The visitor in London will observe that the streets are swept by a machine, 

 with a brush of remarkable consistence. The tree which produces it is seen here, 

 the Attalea fumifera ; the coarse fibre of this and others separates from the base 

 of the leaves. 



The whole house is one vast magazine of tropical novelties, of which we can 

 only mention one or two more. The Banana bears its curious fruit in abundance 

 here, a single cluster often weighing TO or 80 pounds. Perhaps the most remark- 

 able object to the uninitiated will be found in the South African Elephant's Foot, 

 Testudinaria elephantipes, so named from its resemblance, in the external surface 

 of the gigantic root-stock, to the back of a tortoise, or to the foot of an elephant. 

 Take it altogether, a visit to the Palm House at Kew will afford the visitor who has 

 never been in the tropics the greatest surprise and pleasure. We have a good 

 example of some palms, as well as the Elephant's Foot, in Philadelphia, in the 

 house built for the purpose by James Dundas, Esq., which will afford " an epitome 

 view," and should not be neglected by amateurs who visit our city. 



the " Succulent House," we found a great display of the Crassula tribe 



