172 EEPOET OF THE COUNCIL. 



a very considerable proportion ; and the cultivation of these 

 curious productions, abundantly distributed by the Society, has 

 now reached in England a degree of excellence which twenty 

 years ago would have been regarded as unattainable. The mis- 

 sion of Mr. Hartweg to tropical America has more especially 

 been the means of procuring such plants in great abundance. 

 The beauty of some of the species, the fragrance of others, and 

 the singularity of all, would alone have justified the Council in 

 making their acquisition an object of especial attention. But 

 the Council have had in view another and a liigher purpose. It 

 has always been known to those who are conversant with the 

 science of horticulture that the reason why the cultivation of 

 Epiphytes should have so long been regarded as impossible was 

 the difficulty of maintaining in hothouses an atmosphere similar 

 to that which is experienced in the warm, damp, equable cli- 

 mates of tlie tropics ; that it was the very same difficulty which 

 opposed the successful cultivation of the various kinds of tropical 

 fruits which are scarcely known in this country even by name ; 

 and that to overcome the difficulty connected with the one case 

 would either be attended with success in the other, or at least 

 would speedily lead to it. But Epiphytes obviously offered the 

 gardener the greater inducements to exertion, not only because 

 a fortunate result could be more quickly obtained from them, 

 but because in reality the experiment was more attractive and 

 much less costly than if it had been tried upon trees imported 

 from the tropics in small numbers, with very great difficulty 

 and at large expense. The Council of the Society therefore 

 encouraged the cultivation of Epiphytes ; and the result has 

 entirely justified their anticipations, for the principles applied to 

 them have been gradually arljusted to all other tropical plants, 

 a perfect command of the climate of forcing-houses has been 

 attained, and, without neglecting Epiphytes, the country is now 

 in a position to proceed to the more important business of culti- 

 vating tropical fruits for the table. Bananas are already com- 

 mon. Sir George Staunton has ripened Mangoes in perfection, 

 as was formerly done by the late Lord Powis ; and his intelli- 

 gent gardener has reduced the management of this fruit-tree to 

 such certainty that all who have hothouses may grow it for the 

 table if they please. The Council have taken measures to secure 

 the introduction of improved varieties of the Mango, as well as 

 of other fruit-trees : they are assured of the co-operation of the 

 Governor of the Isle of France; of Dr. Wight, of Madras; of 

 Dr. Gardner, in charge of the Botanic Garden in Ceylon, and 

 of others ; and they entertain a confident expectation that, in a 

 few years. Mangoes and Mangosteens will be found at an English 

 dessert in company with the pine-apple. One of the houses in the 



