number of large specimens, among them the following : Dracaena 

 fragrans, from tropical Africa, and its forms with variegated 

 leaves ; the drooping form of the dragon tree, Dracaena Draco 

 Boerhaavei; the bowstring hemp, Sansevieria Guineensis and 5. 

 cylindrica; Dracaena Sanderiana, from western tropical Africa; 

 and Beaucarnea recurvata, from Mexico, with the much enlarged 

 base to its trunk. On the column in the immediate vicinity will 

 be found a plant of the night-blooming jessamine, Cestrum Par- 

 qui, from tropical America, belonging to the potato family, Sola- 

 naceae. This does not bloom until nightfall, but then opens its 

 flowers in great profusion, filling the whole house with its dense 



House No. 5. 



This house is devoted to desert or xerophytic plants, i. e., plants 



which grow in regions where the rainfall is small and followed by 



long dry periods, so that it is necessary for a plant to store up 



its water supply. All the plants in this house have either fleshy 



vents the free transpiration of the stored-up water supply. 



Entering from house no. 4, on the right-hand side bench will 

 be found in the main South African desert plants. The carrion- 

 flowers, belonging to the genus Stapelia, of the milkweed family, 



present, but only stems which bear odd forbidding flowers exhal- 

 ing a most unpleasant odor ; one of these, Stapelia gigantea, 

 bears a flower ten to twelve inches in diameter. Back of these 

 are several plants of Benviea volubilis, a climbing member of the 

 Convallariaceae, or lily-of-the-valley family. A large collection 

 of the genus Aloe, which belongs to the lily family, takes up a 

 considerable portion of this bench ; it is from some of these plants 

 that the medicine, bitter aloes, is derived. Other genera closely 

 related to Aloe are : Gasteria, Hazvorthia and Apicra. 



The central bench is entirely devoted to the cactus family, 

 Cactaceae, almost entirely American, inhabiting for the most part 

 arid regions. The cacti are especially numerous in Mexico and 

 that portion of the United States adjacent thereto, and in northern 

 South America. With very few exceptions the members of this 



