238 



and its cultivation at present is not profitable in competition with 

 Hevea. 



One of the most attractive features of the garden is the ex- 

 tensive grove of the oil palm, Elaeis guinneensis. These tall 

 massive palms have rough trunks caused by the persistent leaf- 

 bases, which afford a good foothold for ferns and orchids, so 

 that they are now almost hidden by greenery. The straight 

 avenues of palms, the luxuriance and variety of the epiphytes, 

 the great leaves interlaced far above, and the semi-twiUght 

 beneath combine to produce an effect little, if any, inferior to the 

 famous Canary Avenue of the Botanical Garden. 



In the southwestern section of the garden a larger variety of 

 economic species may be seen. There are fragrant young plants 

 of Cinnamomum zeylanicuni, yielding cinnamon, and C. cassia, 

 yielding cassia bark. The two species of tea, Thea chinensis and 

 T. assamica, grow side by side, but both appear to be in poor 

 condition in this hot lowland climate. These tea plants are not 

 picked regularly, and consequently grow taller than they do on 

 plantations. For the same reason they also bloom freely, and 

 the three-lobed capsules may frequently be found upon them. 

 Vanilla planifolia is cultivated on two long trellises. There is a 

 good-sized grove of four or five species of gutta-percha. Of 

 these probably the largest is Palaguium Treubii, named for the 

 former director of the garden. There are plants of Strychnos 

 and CincJiona, sources of the well-known drugs. 



Still two other species of rubber trees are grown in this section. 

 Of these, Castilloa elastica, the ceara rubber, has been planted the 

 longest. The trees are now about 60 feet high and have been 

 tapped for rubber. Near them are seedlings of two other species 

 of the same genus, planted for experimental purposes. Manihot 

 Glaziovii, the fourth of the important commercial species, is 

 growing in the same plot, but is represented only by small plants. 

 A small planting of Ficus Vogeltii is a relic of attempts to use this 

 species for rubber, when the plantations of F. elastica were failing, 

 and before the universal introduction of Hevea. The old trees 

 are short and squat, reminding one of old apple trees, but their 

 gray, obliquely ascending branches are perfectly characteristic 

 of the genus Ficus. 



