(i3i) 



Several interesting tall vines climb on the pillars of this 

 house, and on supports along the sides, among them the 

 night-blooming jessamine {Oestrum Parqui) of tropical 

 America, which opens its flowers after dark and exhales a 

 delicious perfume, the flowers remaining open during part 

 of the morning; Henderson's Allamanda, of Brazil, with 

 its showy large yellow flowers, climbs to the roof. 



House No. 5. The plants in this house are from desert 

 regions. Especial attention is called to their fleshy stems 

 or leaves which serve as storage organs for a water supply 

 to carry them over periods of drought. On the right hand 

 bench, as one enters from No. 4, are mainly plants from 

 southern Africa: the carrion flowers (Stapelia), relatives of 

 our common milkweed of the roadsides; Gasteria, Hazvor- 

 thia, and other South African representatives of the lily 

 family; and the fig-marigolds, Mesembryanthemum, be- 

 longing to the carpet-weed family. 



On the end of the center bench, opposite to the entrance 

 from house 4, is the collection of the fleshy members of 

 the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, mostly natives of the 

 Old World. These closely resemble forms of the genus 

 Cereus and related genera of the cactus family, to be 

 found in houses 6 and 7. In fact, the adaptation to an 

 arid environment, by the thickening of stems or leaves, is 

 strikingly illustrated in the plants of several families con- 

 tained in the collections in houses 5 to 8. On the center 

 bench are the aloes, mainly South African members of the 

 lily family. A part of the center bench and the side bench 

 on the east side are devoted to members of the orpine family, 

 many of these interesting and beautiful forms. The eche- 

 verias from Mexico and Central America, and the sempervi- 

 vums or house-leeks, from the Old World, are conspicuous 

 among these. Among other genera represented are Sedum, 

 Kalanchoe, Pachyphytum, and Crassula (in house 6 are large 

 specimens of Crassula portulacea). Many of the stone- 

 crops are hardy plants, and a collection of these may be 

 found at the herbaceous grounds. A large number of 



