(*5) 



stems and leaves of all these plants contain some fiber, 

 which is produced in enormous quantities in the Philippine 

 Islands from Musa textilis, and is the well-known Manila 

 hemp. The supply of fruit for the United States comes 

 mostly from Central America and the West Indies, and 

 some from northern South America. Bananas will grow 

 in southern Florida, but the rocky soil of that region is not 

 well adapted to their cultivation. The traveler's tree, 

 from Madagascar, is shown in several fine specimens, and 

 gets its English name from the fact that the axis of each 

 long leaf-stalk contains a great deal of water which can be 

 tapped and drunk. The bird-of-paradise plants, which 

 take their name from their gaudy flowers, will be found in 

 this group; they are natives of southern Africa and belong 

 to the genus Strelitzia. Another genus of the banana 

 family, Bihai, is also represented by several species, called 

 wild plantains, natives mainly of tropical America. 



Here also may be found several species of the genus Costus 

 and of other genera of the ginger family, including the 

 ginger plant (Zingiber Zingiber). 



House No. 12. The plants in this house, as well as those 

 in house No. 14, are mostly natives of warm-temperate re- 

 gions, and are arranged in botanical sequence, with a view 

 to furnishing a collection for the comparative study of plant 

 families and genera; to make this as complete as possible, 

 as many representatives of families and genera are brought 

 together as space and cultural conditions permit. Cultural 

 requirements necessitate placing the ferns and their allies 

 somewhat out of their sequence position, at the south end 

 of the west side bench. The east side bench is devoted to 

 the pine family, the yew family, and to the endogenous 

 plants, the last named terminating with the orchids, next 

 the banana house. The sequence of exogenous plants 

 begins on the west side bench, as one enters from house 

 No. 13, crosses to the central bench at the ferns, and con- 

 tinues around that, ending in this house with the loasa 

 family, near the fern house. The sequence is then con- 



