(I2 7 ) 



2. Public Conservatory Range 1 



This great glasshouse, located but a short distance from 

 the 200th Street Station 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 com- 

 partments, separated by glass partitions and doors. 



Fig. 1. Ground plan of Conservator}-' Range I. 



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 the West Indies, Florida, and 

 Panama; an elegant plant of the corozo palm {Acrocomia 

 aculeata) of Jamaica, Porto Rico and the Windward Islands; 

 and 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 



