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House No. 4. Here are brought together many kinds of 
large tropical plants belonging to families also represented 
in the smaller houses, but too tall to be grown on the 
benches. 
In this house may be found large specimens of the aroid 
family, the most noteworthy one of these being a magnifi- 
cent plant of Veitch’s tail-flower (Anthurium Veitchit), 
from Colombia, which is believed to be the most elegant 
plant of its kind in cultivation; climbing on trunks of trees 
set as supports, will be found a number of vines of the 
genera Philodendron and Monstera, one of these, Monstera 
deliciosa, a Mexican plant, producing an edible fruit, 
with the odor of pineapple. Another is Jfonstera late- 
vaginata; the early leaves differ widely from the mature 
ones. The main aroid collection will be found in house Io, 
and other plants at range 2, houses 16, 18, and 20. 
A large tree of the common rubber plant, much grown in 
parlors, may be found in the center of this house, reaching 
to the roof; this is a native of tropical Asia and yields some 
rubber, but not in as great quantity nor of as good quality 
as the other rubber trees of South and Central America; it 
is a species of fig (Ficus elastica); other species of Ficus are 
shown in this house, notably a fine tree of Roxburgh’s 
fig, which bears its inedible fruit in bunches near the base of 
the tree, and a specimen of the Banyan tree (Ficus beng- 
halensts). Chocolate trees (Theobroma Cacao), native of 
tropical America, may be found here; the small white 
flowers are produced on the trunk and on branches, and a 
few of them develop into the large woody pods containing 
the seeds or chocolate beans, which are dried and ground up 
into chocolate and cocoa; specimens illustrating the choco- 
late industry will be found in the economic museum. The 
papaya, or papaw, also of tropical America, is here also; 
its fruit, esteemed as an aid to digestion, is borne just under 
the crown of leaves. A specimen of the bread-fruit tree 
(Artocarpus incisa) may also be seen here; originally from 
the islands of the Pacific, it was introduced into the West 
Indies in the latter part of the eighteenth century. 
