sidered as the essential and exclusive character of Bignoniacee, but it 
is now ascertained, that whilst they are not uncommon in adjoining ~ 
orders, there are many true Bignoniacee with indehiscent fruit, 
and, as a natural consequence, wingless seeds; for this is adduced by 
De Candolle, as another instance of that admirable co-ordination and 
co-relation of organs, so much observed in the animal kingdom. Mem- 
branous wings destined to facilitate the dispersion of seeds through 
the air, would be totally useless in fruits which do not open of them- 
themselves, and whose seeds only come out by the soaking and rot- 
ting away of the pod, or germinate within it. Amongst the tall 
growing climbers of tropical America, few can compete in point of 
beauty with this numerous tribe of which the present species affords 
a fair specimen, and it is to be hoped now that so many of our 
more wealthy horticulturists are constructing hothouses on an ex- 
tensive scale, that they will not disdain to follow the example shown 
in some continental, especially German, gardens, in the great use 
there made of the larger climbers for the tasteful decoration of the 
interior of their houses. The new palm house at Potsdam, for in- 
stance, although but little pains has been bestowed on its external 
architectural decoration, is yet far beyond anything we possess in its 
internal arrangement; and this is not entirely owing to the size of the 
specimens of palms it contains, but, perhaps, yet more to the graceful 
manner in which the Passifloras and other climbers hang in festoons 
from the roof, whilst their unsightly stems, often the only part visible 
in our houses, are concealed by the foliage of the other plants. So 
also the beauty of the Palms themselves is very much increased by 
the ferns which are made to conceal the tubs in which they are planted, 
The same object has been attained at Paris by lowering the tubs intoa 
sort of pit, excavated for the purpose, below the level of the hothouse. 
In the hothouses of Scheenbrunn less use has, perhaps, been made of 
climbers, and their collection of palms is small, but they afford a 
solitary instance, we believe, of another kind of beauty; the plants are 
grouped, as far as circumstances would allow, according to their 
natural orders, and in addition to the scientific advantage of this 
arrangement, it is done with so much taste that the effect to the eye is 
very much enhanced. Thus, in one of the principal greenhouses, 
the centre is occupied by a group of Australian Acacias so disposed 
as to have the appearance of one or two specimens of very unusual 
size and beauty, and attracting, on that account, universal attention, 
whilst had they been as usual scattered about amongst a mass of hete- 
