REPORT OF SOCIETY'S MEETINGS. 371 
tory display of the exhibit. The plants were arranged 
in a dozen or more groups, partly based on their natural 
affinities, and partly on their economic uses and qualities. 
Several groups were composed of subjeéts in which 
ornamental foliage and flowers were combined; other 
groups again simply for their foliage or flowers alone. 
The former were chiefly Aroids; some with strikingly 
handsome foliage, and nearly all with very curious, at- 
tractively coloured and often grotesque inflorescences, 
which differing much in particular wereall muchofthesame 
form and general charaéter. Other groups of ornamental 
foliage plants, well seleéted for variety, were begonias, 
(some in flower), marantas and calatheas, crotons, dra- 
czenas, ferns and selaginellas, palms, Aralias, &c. A 
defe& in the exhibit as a whole was the lack of the varied 
light colour afforded by bright flowering plants—such 
colour as dominates and gives the chief charaéter to 
Flower Shows as well as gardens at home ; but Shows in 
tropical lands necessarily partake of the character of the 
gardens, meadows and forests of such lands, which are 
rich in leaf colour, but, with few marked exceptions, 
poor in flower display at any time of the year. There 
were several sets of economic plants, grouped according 
to their kinds, but not very effective, as the plants had 
of necessity, through the exigencies of space, to be se- 
le€ted for smallness of size rathet than for good cultural 
appearance. These plants, however, are familiar to 
visitors resident in the tropics and if ever so well staged 
would not create the interest they do in hot houses and 
at Shows at home, and perhaps the extra space, which the 
more showy plants require for their better display, could 
be secured by dispensing with these, without any notice- 
3B 
