KEW GARDENS. 487 



smoothly-mown lawn in the sixty acres of botanic garden, and park- 

 like lawn, occasionally mown, in the remainder. Over this, is pic- 

 turesquely disposed a large growth of fine trees in the botanic 

 garden, of all manner of rare species, every exotic that will thrive 

 in England growing to their natural size without being in the least 

 crowded tall pines, grand old Cedars of Lebanon, and all sorts of 

 rare deciduous trees. Between the avenues and groups are large open 

 glades of smooth lawn, in which are distributed hot-houses, orna- 

 mental cottages, a large lake of water, parterres of brilliant flowers 

 for show, and a botanical arrangement of plants, shrubs, and trees 

 for scientific study. 



In the centre of a wide glade of turf rises up the new palm- 

 house, built in 1848. It is a palace of glass 362 feet in length, 

 and 66 feet high and fairy-like and elegant in its proportions, 

 though of great strength ; for the whole, framework and sashes, is 

 of cast iron, glazed with 45,000 feet of glass. You open the door, 

 and, but for the glass roof that you see instead of sky above your 

 head, you might believe yourself in the West Indies. Lofty palm 

 trees, thirty or forty feet high, are growing, rooted in the deep soil 

 beneath your feet, with the same vigor and luxuriance as in the 

 West Indies. Huge clusters of golden bananas hang across the 

 walks, and cocoa-nut trees, forty-two feet high, wave their tufts of 

 leaves over your head. The foliage of the cinnamon and camphor 

 scents the atmosphere, and rich air-plants of South America dazzle 

 the eye with their strange and fanciful blossoms. Most beautiful 

 of all are the tree ferns, with trunks eight or ten inches in diameter, 

 and lofty heads, crowned with plume-like tufts of the most delicate 

 and graceful of all foliage. From the light iron gallery, which runs 

 round the inside of this tropical forest-conservatory, you look down 

 on the richest assemblage of vegetable forms that can be conceived ; 

 while over your head clamber, under the iron rafters, in charming 

 luxuriance, the richest passion flowers and other vines of the East 

 Indian islands. 



If you are interested in exotic botany, you may leave this palm 

 house, and pass the entire day in only a casual inspection of the 

 treasures of other climates, collected here from all parts of the 

 world. Green-houses, the stoves, the orchidaceous house, the Aus- 



