32 
Theobroma Cacao, from which both chocolate and cocoa are 
manufactured. There is a group of four plants, three of which 
now bear nearly mature fruit, and one of them is also well in 
flower. Unlike most plants, this bears its flowers and fruit on 
the trunk or at the base of the branches, instead of near the end 
of the branches. The fruit pins five rows of seeds, a fully 
developed one having from 50 to 75 seeds. It is from these 
seeds, commonly called ie beans, that the economic 
products are produced. 
Right across the path from this is a large plant of Medinilla 
magnifica, from the Philippines, now sending out a profusion of 
its large panicles of bright pink flowers and floral bracts. It 
promises to be a handsome attraction in a few Ss. 
In no. 5, one — the succulent houses, as, species of the 
aloes and gasterias are blooming. As these are all from southern 
Africa, where summer now holds forth, their flowering so freely 
at present is explained. One cannot refrain from expressing sur- 
prise that these homely but interesting plants should send forth 
such richly colored flowers. Another plant in this house, now 
in full bloom, is the odd Kalcnene marmorata, from Abyssinia, 
with its long white flowers, quite exceptional in the genus, and 
fleshy marbled leaves. 
n house no. 8 a number of interesting Begonias are in bloom, 
among them the unusual 2. nelumbiifolia, from the West Indies, 
with its immense leaves and large panicles of white flowers. 
Among the orchids in house no. 15, the most conspicuous for 
the past two weeks, and still continuing so, is a group of about 
a dozen plants of Laelia anceps in full bloom, their long graceful 
wand-like stems and rosy fowers making them very attractive. 
Not quite so showy, but much more unusual, is a large plant of 
Cattleya granulosa Russeliana. This was imported directly from 
Pernambuco, Brazil, the past summer, and is now in full flower 
with thirteen flowering stems containing an aggregate of thirty- 
five flowers. The yellowish-green petals and sepals with the 
small brown spots make quite a contrast with the white lip flushed 
with red, and also with the Cartleyas of the /abiata type likewise 
now in bloom nearby. This variety Russediana differs from the 
