THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 21 



contain a varied collection of pitcher plants, aroids, melasto- 

 mids, sensitive plants, palms, marantas, bananas, bamboos, 

 etc. To the right of the palm house is a succulent house 

 containing a type collection of cacti, euphorbias, gasterias, 

 aloes, agaves, crassulas and other forms that are more or 

 less similarly modified to live in arid regions and success- 

 fully resist long periods of drought. On the left side of the 

 palm house are two structures, each 59 X 13 feet. The 

 inner of the two now contains a fair collection of sub- 

 tropical and tropical orchids donated by Mr. LeBoutillier, 

 and more recently by Mrs. George Wilson. Sharing the 

 house with these are parent species and hybrid derivatives 

 of the popular begonias and gloxinias, as well as specimens 

 of the curious South African genus Streptocarpvs, two spe- 

 cies of which show only one of the two seed leaves, though 

 this may attain a length — as in one specimen exhibited in 

 the greenhouses — of two to three feet. Species of Oxalis and 

 Solanum, the curious simple-leaved Chorizema from Australia, 

 and many other sub-tropical types of great value in under- 

 graduate and graduate teaching find a home here. The 

 outer or cool house lodges many plants of great botanical 

 interest, chief among these being the celebrated venus fly- 

 trap, several native sundews, groups of our southern sarra- 

 cenias, and the butterworts, all celebrated as fly catchers. 

 Recently, by permission of the highway authorities of the 

 city of Philadelphia through a municipal act, Pine Street, 

 between Thirty-eighth and Thirty-sixth Streets, has been 

 taken from the city plans. The area thus vacated has been 

 converted (1898) into a fine walk lined with trees, shrubs 

 and rhododendrons. At the Thirty-ninth Street entrance a 

 memorial gate-way, in keeping with the dormitory building 



