Collection of Exotic Plants. 99 



By the side of one of the cohimns Avas growing a plant of 

 Eucalyptus saligna, ten or twelve feet high, (which Ave had 

 before seen ornamenting Col. Carr's large green-house, in the 

 Bartram Botanic Garden, Pa.) It has produced flowers the 

 present season, and the pendent branches, the leaves of which 

 have a peculiar fragrance, have an effect, in a large speci- 

 men, very similar to those of the weeping Avillow. The Japan 

 loquat had numerous clusters of ripening fruit. Large plants 

 of the crimson and while corrollsed iihododendron arboreum, 

 will be profusely covered with bloom towards spring. There 

 is a fine plant or two, among other species, of R. hybridum, 

 which is a very superb sort. Metrosideros lanceolata var. 

 semperflorens, and Sparniannw africana, were in blossom. 

 Several acacias, both here and in the hot-house, were full of 

 buds. That pretty, free flowering plant, Zinum trigynum, was 

 covered with yellow flowers, and we observed some seedling 

 Chinese primroses of both colors, with fringed edges. We 

 were delighted to find this species breaking out into a new 

 variety, because we have no doubt that, by impregnation 

 with the other richer colored species of the same genus, 

 some beautiful hybrids may be produced, retaining all the 

 delicate and ever blooming habits of their parent. Several 

 Oxalidea3 Avere in blossom, and Ave observed a great quantity 

 of ixias, AA^achendorfias, lachenalias, Gladioli and other Cape 

 bulbs shooting up vigorously, and some of them beginning to 

 produce spikes of flowers. 



Opening the door of the hot-house, Ave AA^ere strongly im- 

 pressed Avith the magnificence of the different palms, Avhichhere 

 toAA^er above the rest of their neighbors. Directly before us 

 Avas a noble specimen of the great Tallipot palm of Ceylon, 

 (Corypha umbraculifera), the leaves or fronds of Avhich, in- 

 cluding the petioles, Avere seven or eight feet in length. 

 The superb fan-like foliage, and tout ensemble of this plant, 

 giA'e it, in our estimation, that preeminence among its con- 

 geners, Avhich its name, xoQvq))], Avould seem to imply. There 

 Avas an equally remarkable specimen of Laiania bourbon- 

 ica (the Bourbon palm), and very splendid plants of Oreo- 

 doxia regia, Phoe^nix dactylifera (the elate palm) , and Cbcos nu- 

 cifera (the cocoa-nut). From amidst a number of smaller 

 palms, Ave noticed Thrinax parviflora, and elegans [?] ; and 

 tAA'o or three species of Acrocoma. 



Nearly related to the palms in appearance, if not in struc- 

 ture, is the natural order Cycadeee, Of this Ave observed 

 four very striking plants of the Japanese sago palm, ( Cycas 

 revoluta) the stems of tAA'o of Avhich, measured each nearly 

 three feet in circumference, with fronds at the summit pro- 

 portionably large. We never look at a large specimen of 

 this truly fine plant, AAdlhout calhng to mind the columns of 



