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House No. 9. This is the aquatic house, and plants 
which find their homes in the water or require much moist- 
ure are brought together here. From the bridge spanning 
the pool the various features may be readily observed. 
Fringing the pool on the right, as one enters from house 
o. 10, are members of the sedge and grass families, while 
on the left hand side the fringe is made up entirely of 
grasses, largely of the graceful bamboos. Of special in- 
terest among the sedges is the Egyptian paper-plant 
(Cyperus Papyrus), from which many of the ancients ob- 
tained their writing paper. Among the grasses by far the 
most important is the sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum); 
from the lower portions of its stalks the juice is extracted 
by pressure, and from this juice molasses and sugar are 
manufactured. Among the plants in the pool are many 
with attractive flowers; conspicuous among these being 
water-lilies (Castalia), of which there are several different 
kinds; the water hyacinth; the parrot’s-feather, with its deli- 
ate feathery masses of green; the water poppy; the water 
snowflake; the water lettuce and golden-club, members of 
the arum family; the floating fern; and some odd little 
plants related to the ferns, members of the genus Salvinza. 
House No. ro contains specimens of the aroids, repre- 
sented by a large number of different species, located on 
and underthe benches. The plants of this family (Araceae) 
are mostly of tropical distribution, but they are represented 
in our northern flora by the skunk cabbage, the jack-in-the- 
pulpit, and the sweet flag; the most familiar one in cultiva- 
tion is the calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica), not botanic- 
ally a lily. The plants all have spikes of very small flowers 
closely massed together, and usually subtended by a 
broad leaf-like structure which is known as the spathe; this 
is usually highly colored, pure white, yellow, red or scarlet, 
and is commonly thought of as the flower, though not 
botanically so; species of Anthurium, known as tail-flowers, 
are abundant in the West Indies and tropical America, as is 
the genus Philodendron, signifying tree-loving, on account of 
