402 Notes and Recollections of a Tour. 



azaleas, &c. were in fine vigor, and full of flower bnds. The 

 turf was of the deepest verdure, short, thick, and smoothly- 

 cut. 



The first house we entered was the Palm House, which is 

 one hundred feet long, fifty wide, and thirty high; and 

 filled with noble specimens, among which was a Fourcroya 

 gigdntea, which had even reached above the top of the house, 

 nearly forty feet. All the new and beautiful Ipomasas, 

 Echites, Passifloras, &c. were growing in pots, trained around 

 sticks inserted at the sides, and in good order. The largest 

 plant we ever saw of Strelitzia augusta was in this house ; 

 Dichorizandra thyrsifolia had a spike of its blue flowers fully 

 expanded. All the plants were in fine health. 



The next house was the conservatory, about one hundred 

 and fifty feet long and thirty wide, constructed in the old style, 

 with upright front lights and blank roof In this, were some 

 of the most remarkable specimens of plants we have ever seen. 

 Two Araucaria excelsa, twenty to thirty feet high : two of A. 

 Cunniiighamu the same, and two of A. braziliensis, remarka- 

 bly beautiful, the same. Yery large camellias, rhododen- 

 drons, melaleucas, &c. &c., filled the entire house. 



A house devoted to Cape and New Holland plants was 

 filled with fine specimens of various acacias, eutaxias, poly- 

 galas, and some heaths ; and we noticed a fine plant of Zan- 

 thosia rotundifolia with singular white flowers. 



Two new span-roofed greenhouses, connected together 

 transversely, had been recently erected, the whole heated by 

 one boiler situated at some distance, in order to carry up the 

 chimney, and get rid of the smoke. One of them was de- 

 voted wholly to the noble tribe of Banksias, probably by far 

 the richest in Europe ; indeed, we had no conception of their 

 beauty from the few specimens we had seen in American col- 

 lections ; the name of Sir Jos. Banks could not have had a 

 fitter memorial to commemorate the services he rendered to 

 the Botanical world. The following species all large and well 

 grown, were in bloom ; — Banksia marcescens, B. Cunning- 

 hkmii, B. media, B. speciosa, B. reticulata, B. spinulosa, 

 and also Dryandr« longiflora, D. floribunda, D. phuuosa, &c., 

 &c. A very large and well grown plant of the new shrubby ve- 

 ronica ( V. speciosa,) but not in bloom, with some other plants. 



