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Dr. Daniel S. Martin, of the Charleston Museum, visited the 
Garden during June. Dr. Martin was instrumental in securing 
much-needed specimens of Devonian fossil plants for the paleo- 
botanical collection, in exchange for similar specimens from 
various Cretaceous horizons 
In the large bed in the court of the conservatories, in front of 
the main entrance, a large collection of American desert plants 
has again been installed. Of especial interest in this collection 
at the present time are two plants of the genus Agave, which hav 
sent up their tall flowering stems and are about coming ae 
bloom; one of these “century plants” has a long narrow 
cluster of flowers, in the other it is branched. There are many 
form a large part of the flora of the American desert, and the 
peculiar adaptation of these to various conditions is always a 
matter of great interest. In addition to this bed, which has 
been devoted to plants of the American desert for the past two 
years, this year there have been established two other beds, 
one on either side of the paths bounding the center bed. ese 
are also devoted to desert plants, but the collections placed 
therein are from other than American countries. The one to the 
east is composed entirely of desert plants from southern Africa 
Here are represented the fig-marigolds of the genus Mesem- 
bryanthemum, which bear a profusion of rich-colored flowers, 
members of the Aizoaceae, or carpet-weed family; the genera 
Alse, Gasteria and Haworthia, all members of the Liliaceae, the 
between the euphorbias from that region and some of the columnar 
Ceret across the path, which are all natives of America. The 
bed to the west is given over entirely to the Crassulaceae, or 
orpine family, found not only in the desert regions of this country, 
but also in those of the Old World. Among the American 
genera here are Acheveria, Stylophorum and Pachyphytum ; while 
the Old World is represented by such genera as Crassula and 
Sempervivum. The large genus Sedum is ie aca and a 
number of its species form part of the collection 
