A HOTHOUSE PAI.M. 1 23 



ter. The moss leads the way and furnishes a foothold for 

 bushes and water plants. Slowly, a few inches a century, 

 the procession moves. The shaking surface makes a pre- 

 carious footing for the unwary visitor. In time the entire 

 surface is covered. As growth proceeds on the surface the 

 mass sinks until the basin is filled with vegetable deposit. 

 Where vegetable matter is brought by rivers and deposit- 

 ed, the rate of accumulation is much faster. Should such 

 a deposit sink below the level of the sea and be covered 

 with mud or sand it would be changed by pressure, first to 

 lignite and then to coal after untold myriads of years. 



A Hothouse Palm. 



A number of rare and valuable palms were secured last week by 

 the New York botanical gardens and were placed on exhibition in 

 the palm house, the central and largest building of the conserva- 

 tory range. Most of them were gifts from private collections, but 

 by far the largest of the plants was obtained from the Central Park 

 conservatories by exchange. 



This palm is a fine specimen of Cocus Plumosa. which has attained 

 a height of fifty feet and threatened to push its way through the 

 roof of the tallest building in the Central Park range of glass 

 houses. It has the honor of being the first plant to be given a 

 fixed position in the garden palm house, all its neighbors being 

 potted or else growing in large wooden tubs and boxes, while this 

 plant was long since found to be too large and a too vigorous grow- 

 er to be so treated. 



It required seven men and a derrick to uproot it from its posi- 

 tion in the park conservatories, but the gardeners of the botanical 

 gardens managed to plant it in the palm house without a derrick. 

 The uprooting, transporting and replanting required nearly six 

 days' work. The plant is named from the plume-like grace of its 

 great leaves, which remind one somewhat of the more familiar 

 Kehtia palms, but are fully fifteen feet in length. 



The palm was planted directly in the soil and was surrounded 

 with an attractive bit of rockwork, which in turn has been called 

 upon to nourish many vines, begonias and more typical rock-loving 



