(191) 
Fringing the pool on the right, as one enters from house 
No. 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 sugar is manufactured. 
Among the plants in the pool are many with attractive 
flowers; conspicuous among these being water-lilies (Cas- 
talia), of which there are several different kinds; the water 
hyacinth; the parrot’s-feather, with its delicate feathery 
masses of green; the water poppy; the water snowflake; 
the water lettuce and golden-club, members of the aroid 
family; the floating fern; and some odd little plants re- 
lated to the ferns, members of the genus Salvinia. 
House No. ro contains specimens of the aroids, repre- 
sented by a large number of different species, located on 
the center and end benches and also under the 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 cultivation is the calla 
lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica), not botanically 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 abund- 
ant in the West Indies and tropical America, as is the genus 
Philodendron, signifying tree-loving, on account of many 
species being vines climbing high on the trees in tropical 
forests; numerous species have underground stems and 
branches which contain much starch and are cultivated 
