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washing, and passes into commerce under the name of sago 
starch. Opposite the entrance to the court in this house, is a 
group of bamboos, which belong to the grass family, the 
most noteworthy of them being the Chinese bamboo (Bam- 
busa vulgaris), whose stems reach into the upper part of the 
dome; this plant grows with great rapidity each year by new 
shoots which come up from under ground, our measurements 
showing that they reached 65 feet in height in 95 days, a rate 
of about 8 inches a day. The plant has been introduced 
into the West Indies, and in Asia its stems are put to a great 
variety of uses in construction, for water pipes and for vari- 
ous utensils. 
Hfouse No. 2 contains specimens of the aroids, on the 
middle bench, represented by a large number of different 
species. 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 (ftichardia 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 abundant in the West 
Indies and tropical America, as is the genus PAzlodendron, 
signifying tree-loving, on account of many species being 
vines climbing high on the trees in tropical forests; numer- 
ous species have underground stems and branches which con- 
tain much starch and are cultivated in the tropics for food, 
under the name of yautias and taras. Plants of the same 
family, too large for exhibition in this house No. 2, will be 
found at the western side of house No. 4. The side benches 
of this house are occupied by plants of the pineapple family. 
These are mostly plants which live on the trunks and branches 
of trees in tropical forests, and are therefore called epiphytes, 
signifying plants growing up on other plants; many of them 
