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A great treat was a day spent at Chatsworth, seat of the Duke 
of Devonshire, one of the oldest and most celebrated gardens in 
England; in fact, it is a private botanic garden. It was here that 
Amherstia nobilis from the Burmese Empire, and one of the most 
gorgeous flowering trees in existence, was first brought under 
cultivation ; indeed, a conservatory which cost more than £1,000 
was specially built for this plant alone. Three hundred years 
ago gardening was known at Chatsworth, and it was interesting 
to observe the various styles of the art, which are still preserved 
and kept up from the stiff formal Oriental, Italian, and Dutch to 
the present or so-called modern or natural landscape system. 
To attempt a description of the many beauties to be met with in 
the outer groundsof Chatsworth—the lovely lakes, lawns, charming 
endless vistas, glades, and dells, huge artificial rockeries so skil- 
fully arranged as to deceive even an expert as to whether they 
were not natural formations—would occupy more time than could 
be given to them just now. I will therefore briefly refer to the 
contents of the glass structures, which cover some acres of ground, 
The Victoria Regia house contains, besides the great water lily 
itself, which is grown in a tank 86 feet in diameter, numerous 
choice aquatic plants, amongst which is a fine plant of Euryale 
Jferox, of the East Indies, which before the Royal water-lily was 
the noblest water plant known. The Nympheas are largely 
grown, and amongst them were Nymphcea gigantea and N. 
cerulea, the blue water lilies; V. Devoniensis, with brilliant 
-erimson flowers, the sweetly-scented NM. Daubenyana, and the 
sacred lotus lily or rose of the Nile (Nelumbium speciosum), with 
leaves standing up parasol-like above the large rosy-pink flowers. 
The are many orchid houses, and several are devoted to kinds 
requiring special treatment. One of these houses contains a 
magnificent collection of cattleyas, principally Brazilian—some of 
them with flowers 7 inches across, and amongst other orchids, 
hanging in baskets from the roof, were some rare odontoglossums, 
phalenopsis or moth orchids, and oncidiums, all American, 
Another conservatory was filled with special Brazilian, Mexican, 
and British Columbian species requiring cool treatment—a matter 
which only within the past few years has occupied the serious 
attention of orchid cultivators, it having been discovered that many 
tropical species thrive better by more free circulation of air. 
A draceena and croton house was crowded almost to excess with 
the most beautiful kinds of the variegated forms of these plants, 
striped or blotched with every imaginable colour, and they were 
the more interesting to me as I myself was the discoverer of some 
of them many years ago during a cruise of H.M.S. Challenger. 
There is also a house of Cape heaths, one of camellias, of 
Indian azaleas, and an orangery, besides grape houses, &c. 
