CACTUS OR SUCCULENT HOUSE 129 



of Oxford, by the Regius Professor of Botany, Dr. Williams ; 

 together with cuttings of all the other Mesembryanthema then 

 living in that Collection : which I conceive there is every 

 presumptive reason to suppose are the legitimate descendants 

 of the far-famed Sherardian stock at Eltham ; and which shine 

 so conspicuously in the works of Dillenitis. Of all the 

 Mesembryanthema that celebrated botanist has so interestingly 

 figured in his matchless Hortus, M. serratum alone is lost 

 all the others are now alive before the writer " (" Rev. 

 Plantarum Succulentarum," p. 98, 1821). 



Many of these plants are of exceeding slow growth, taking 

 a long time to arrive at maturity. They thrive in the sandy 

 deserts of Arabia, where they are enabled to retain for a 

 long time the water they imbibe during the short rainy 

 season. 



The Cycad, Encephalartos altensteinii, is grown in this 

 house. Concerning Cycads, see p. 115. 



No. n. THE PROPAGATING-HOUSE 

 (Not open to the Public] 



A Propagating-Pit was built in 1852 (?) and was reroofed in 

 1866, but the present house is a much more recent structure. 



The contents of this house of necessity undergo frequent 

 changes with the season and the needs of the collections in 

 the other houses. Among the more permanent flora are some 

 examples of exceedingly interesting species of flesh-eating 

 plants, which Darwin made the subject of a special mono- 

 graph, "The Insectivorous Plants." 



The humble Drosera or Sundew has leaves, says the old 

 herbalist Parkinson, that are continually moist in the hottest 

 day, " yea the hotter the Sunne shineth on them, the moister 

 they are, with a certain sliminesse that will rise into threads." 

 When a small fly settles on a leaf it is immediately glued by 

 the clammy drops, and the adjoining hairs bend round the 

 9 



