n6 GLASS-HOUSES 



again in 1892. The leaves of the gigantic A. titanum are 

 said to grow to a circumference of 45 ft. (Beccari). The allied 

 Hydrosme rivieri is also represented. Of the other genera 

 we have Spathiphyllum patinii; Nephthytis liberica; bright- 

 flowered Anthuriums, often with the Orchids in No. 9 ; and 

 several fine-foliaged Caladiums and Colocasias * scattered 

 about among the other stove plants. In the East, Aroid 

 roots, " cocoes," are a useful food, and biscuits are prepared 

 from Aroid flour. 



The Sensitive Plant has been grown at Oxford as a " wonder 

 and a curiosity" ever since 1654, when John Evelyn saw it 

 there. Some forty years on, Celia Fiennes mentioned it 

 again in her diary : " There is also y e sensible plant, take but 

 a Leafe between finger and thumb and squeeze it and it 

 immediately Curies up together as if pained, and after some 

 tyme opens abroad again, it looks in Coullour like a filbert 

 Leafe, but much narrower and long. There is also the 

 humble plant that grows on a long slender Stalke and do but 

 strike it, it falls flatt on y e ground, stalke and all, and after 

 some tyme revives againe and Stands up, but these are nice 

 plants and are kept mostly under Glass's, y e aire being too 

 rough for them." 



And it was perhaps in our Oxford Garden that an under- 

 graduate contemporary of Dr. Daubeny, and like him an 

 enthusiastic chemist, may have first become acquainted with 



* In recent years have been grown : 



Aglaonema treubii Homalonema rubescens (6) 



Anchomanes hookeri Hydrosme rivieri (7) 



Anthurium hookeri (9) Nephthytis liberica 



podophyllum (9) Schismatoglottis neoguineensis 



Arisaema ringens (7) 



Caladium albanense Spathiphyllum patinii 



speciosa ' Typhonium gigantea 



,, venosa Xanthosoma lindeni (6) 

 Colocasia sanderiana 



The numbers refer to the houses where the plants were exhibited. 



