214 IIOltTICULTUltAL TOUR. 



pletely filled the barrel or round box in which it had been 

 placed, and now rises considerably more than a foot above 

 I he margin of it : it is harder than cork ; the smoother 

 parts somewhat resemble the shell of land-tortoises, (Testu- 

 do Graeca and geometrica) ; the rougher parts have a coarse 

 scaly appearance, which has given rise to the name Ele- 

 phanCs-Jbot. The age of this curious specimen is proba- 

 bly not less than forty or fifty years. It has frequently 

 flowered ; but the Tamus being a dioecious plant, and on- 

 ly one sex existing here, no seeds have ever been produ- 

 ced *. — The Smooth Iron-wood (Sideroxylon inerme) is 

 another Cape plant, of which there is here a large and fine 

 specimen : the wood, as is well known, and as is implied in 

 the generic name, is very heavy, and sinks in water. — We 

 were rather surprised to find that the collection of Cape 

 heaths was exceedingly meagre, not more than a tenth part 

 of the number of species which may be seen at Lee and 

 Kennedy's, or at Loddiges, existing here. 



The Amsterdam garden had long been noted for a 

 noble specimen of the Dragon's-blood tree (Dracaena Dra- 

 co), which had reached the height of forty feet, and was 

 eighty years old. We looked in vain for this specimen ; 

 and, on inquiry, found that part of the stem having de- 

 cayed, the plant had been cut over in 1814 f. The garde- 



* The Cape Briony was introduced into England by Mr Masson. A 

 male plant flowered at Kew in 1783; and a female at Mr Knight's, King's 

 Road, in 1810. 



"J" It was impossible that we should not have been struck with the coin- 

 cideoce of our own fine specimen of the Dracaena Draco in the Royal Bota- 

 i.i' Garden a1 Edinburgh, having been lost in the same year. It was plant- 

 ed by Professor Hope, the father of the present distinguished Professor of 

 Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh; was more than forty years old, 

 • it thirty feet high : it was by far the finest specimen of the plant in 



