(5) 



i. The Public Conservatories 

 Range No. 1 



This great glasshouse, located but a short distance from 

 the terminus of the Third Avenue Elevated Railway, is 512 

 feet in length, with a central dome about 90 feet in height, 

 and wings extending from the main range in such a way as 

 to form a court open to the southwest. The area under 

 glass is about one acre. The building stands on a terrace 

 5 feet in height, approached by six flights of cut granite 

 steps connecting with the path and driveway approaches. 

 The house contains fifteen compartments, separated by 

 glass partitions and doors. 



House No. 1 contains palms of numerous species from all 

 parts of tropical and warm regions, both of the Old World 

 and the New. Of West Indian palms, the collection con- 

 tains the royal palm of Cuba and Florida, an elegant plant 

 of the corozo palm {Acrocomia media) of Porto Rico and the 

 Windward Islands; the cocoanut palm, planted in all 

 tropical countries for its fruit and for the numerous uses to 

 which its fiber, wood and leaves are applied; it is not 

 definitely known that the cocoanut palm is a native of the 

 West Indies, and where in the tropical regions it actually 

 originated is uncertain. Other tropical American palms 

 are illustrated by the silvertop palm {Coccothrinax argentea), 

 of Florida and the West Indies and by the curious Mexican 

 Acanthorhiza aculeata with spine-like roots on its trunk. 

 Old World species are shown in a very large tree of the 

 Chinese fan-palm, by the date palm {Phoenix dactylifera) 

 of northern Africa, and by numerous other large species 

 from the Pacific islands. Another Old World palm is Cala- 

 mus asperrimus, of Java, curious in its climbing habit; the 

 specimen here is over one hundred and fifty feet long; the 

 long tail-like appendages to the leaves, which have back- 

 wardly turned spines, enable the palm to climb on sur- 

 rounding vegetation. Related to the palms and shown by 

 numerous specimens in this house, we find a number of 



