308 J\''otcs made during a Visit to JN'czc York, ^-c. 



long, and thirty-one wide, and twenty-eight feet high in the 

 centre. It is built with a span roof, and side-sashes, which 

 reach to the ground. The side lights are double, in order to 

 keep out the cold air in winter, as it would require a great 

 consumption of fuel, unless double sashes or outside shutters 

 were used. 



The interior arrangements of the palm-house are simply a 

 large bed in the centre, with a walk of four feet wide all 

 round it. The hot-water pipes, three in number, occupy one 

 side of the walk. The palms, and other plants, are planted 

 out in the bed, and presented a most vigorous and thrifty ap- 

 pearance. The banana, which occupied the centre, had 

 thrown up a stem since July, 1840, which now reached to 

 the top of the house! so that a portion of the leaves had to be 

 cut off. Two clusters of fruit and flowers were each five feet 

 long, and the gardener, Mr. Paulsen, estimated the weight of 

 the largest cluster, when ripe, at about seventy-five pounds. 

 Mr. Perry informed us that a cluster ripened last fall, and the 

 fruit was of superior quality, equalling that grown in the 

 West Indias. Independent of its fruit, it was a noble object, 

 its long and wavy fronds towering up above the surrounding 

 plants. The Pcmddnus spiralis is undoubtedly the best plant 

 in the country. Other fine specimens of plants were the 

 Lutdnia borbonica, very large; India-rubber tree, (Ficus 

 elasticus,) twenty feet high; Astrapae^a Wallichi?, twelve feet; 

 and A. viscosa, quite rare, twelve feet. We also noticed a 

 flourishing specimen of Musa Cavendishu; this species has 

 attracted much notice in England, and is grown there quite 

 extensively, fruiting abundantly in pots twelve inches in diam- 

 eter, in the same manner of growing the grape or peach. All 

 the plants in the bed have grown so vigorously that they al- 

 ready begin to crowd each other. Gloriosa superba was 

 flowering splendidly, planted out in the bed. Cereus hepta- 

 gonus, of which there is a specimen here ten feet high, had 

 been grafted with Echinoc actus Eyriesn'; and when the latter 

 is in bloom in full flower, elevated on the tall stems of the hep- 

 tagonus, it forms a striking object. The palm-house pleased us 

 as much as any object we saw during our visit, and we regret 

 that many of our wealthy gentlemen, who have hot-houses and 

 green-houses, do not also erect structures for such a superior 

 tribe of plants as the palms, and for other oriental specimens of 

 vegetation. 



