180 KEW GARDENS 



air with fiery gold, and given in exchange the 

 dull comfort of hot- water pipes ; deserted by the 

 radiant birds, the shining insects, and the glitter- 

 ing reptiles that should people their drooping 

 branches, among which the stir of missing 

 monkey - troops seems feebly aped by the 

 murmurs and movements of workmen hidden 

 in the galleries. 



For another kind of more or less unfamiliar 

 vegetation we must seek the Temperate House, 

 further up the central walks towards the Pagoda. 

 In this, boasting itself the largest winter garden 

 in the world, are collected specimens of sun- 

 loving plants, from the acacias of Australia to 

 the cacti of Mexico. The most venerable growth 

 here seems a shoot of that now crumbled dragon- 

 tree at Orotava, which Humboldt renowned as 

 the oldest tree in the world. The most imposing 

 are the araucarias in the central aisles, one of 

 them the famous Norfolk Island pine, that in its 

 own home will reach a height of two hundred 

 feet. Some of these Antipodean strangers can be 

 won to grow in British soil ; some would flourish 

 under its sky, but for their rooted habit of being 

 most active in our nipping winter. For to their 

 native soil, the seasons, of course, come reversed 



