AN AMERICAN KEW. 255 



would carpet the floor of an ordinary drawing-roorn, I love to think 

 of these things. 



The enjoyment is perhaps enhanced by an occasional peep through 

 the glass walls of the paradise, revealing the melancholy Britisher, 

 close at hand in space, but thousands of miles distant in temperature, 

 stalking rigidly about in overcoat and gloves. Then, too, the hot- 

 house, while giving the charm and beauty of the tropics, dispenses with 

 the inconveniences. Here are no coral-s"nakes to drop from the boughs 

 down the back of your neck ; no scorpions or tarantulas to crawl up 

 your trousers ; no apes to pelt you with cocoa-nuts ; no rhinoceroses to 

 toss you above the tree-tops ; no tigers to disembowel you and bite 

 your head off. On the contrary, everything is scrupulously neat and 

 secure. The rich loam round the roots of the plants harbors nothing 

 noxious ; the asphalt walks that thread the thicket are clean and trust- 

 worthy. Ever and anon you come upon a native of the place, — not a 

 savage, painted in red and black stripes and with his bow-string drawn 

 to his ear, but — a quiet and sober gardener in his shirt-sleeves, pruning 

 a dead leaf or bough, or raking the mould round the roots of a new 

 importation, or wielding a watering-pot. The place is quite still ; the 

 huge leaves hang motionless ; the noise of a pair of steps being dragged 

 into position resounds through the building ; and, if you listen, you 

 will at all times hear the pleasant trickling of water in some reservoir 

 or other. If the terrors of the jungle are still too much for your 

 nerves, you may be comforted by observing that each plant wears a 

 label, painted on wood or enamelled on tin, describing its scientific name 

 and habitat. It cost money to bring theni here, and the very leaves of 

 their twigs are numbered. 



But there are other places to be visited besides the palm-house. As 

 we emerge from its luxurious warmth into the cool English air, we see 

 in front of us a large, circular pool, with broad, shallow flights of stone 

 steps leading down to it, and English willows bending over it. Water- 

 fowl swim and quack here, and children elude their nurses and get their 

 feet wet. If we pass round to the other side, and then look back to 

 the palm-house, we behold it inverted in the smooth mirror of the 

 water, — a delectable spectacle. It was like a fairy palace already ; but 

 this shadowy duplication of it quite removes it from the material 

 sphere, and makes it a lovely dream. Kew Gardens are full of such 

 felicitous devices. 



To our right are acres of yet unexplored hot-houses. "We stroll 

 towards them along eccentric paths, amidst beds of purple rhododen- 

 drons, geraniums, tulips, narcissuses, or hyacinths, according to the 

 season ; and everywhere is the matchless English turf, compact and 

 flawless as velvet, and the leafy, overshadowing English trees. But 

 let us seek the dwelling-place of the Victoria Regia. It grows, I 

 believe, on the Amazon, which is as near the equator as one can well 

 get ; but latitudes are much mixed up in Kew Gardens, and this titanic 

 water-lily is only a few rods distant. It basks on the surface of a 

 pool, in an atmosphere of delicious warmth, — its leaves, each of the 

 diameter of a dining-table, covering the water. Amidst these great 

 green disks blossoms the flower, a nosegay of which would fill a farm- 



