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House No. g. This is the aquatic house, and plants 

 which find their homes in the water or require much moist- 

 ure are brought together here. From the bridge spanning 

 the pool the various features may be readily observed. 

 Fringing the pool on the right, as one enters from house 

 No. 10, are members of the sedge and grass families, while 

 on the left hand side the fringe is made up entirely of 

 grasses, largely of the graceful bamboos. Of special in- 

 terest among the sedges is the Egyptian paper-plant 

 {Cyperus Papyrus), from which many of the ancients ob- 

 tained their writing paper. Among the grasses by far the 

 most important is the sugar cane (Saccharum offlcinarum) ; 

 from the lower portions of its stalks the juice is extracted 

 by pressure, and from this juice molasses and sugar are 

 manufactured. Among the plants in the pool are many 

 with attractive flowers; conspicuous among these being 

 water-lilies (Castalia), of which there are several different 

 kinds ; the water hyacinth ; the parrot's-f eather, with its deli- 

 ate feathery masses of green; the water poppy; the water 

 snowflake; the water lettuce and golden-club, members of 

 the arum family; the floating fern; and some odd little 

 plants related to the ferns, members of the genus Salvinia. 



House No. 10 contains specimens of the aroids, repre- 

 sented by a large number of different species, located on 

 and under the benches. The plants of this family (Araceae) 

 are mostly of tropical distribution, but they are represented 

 in our northern flora by the skunk cabbage, the jack-in-the- 

 pulpit, and the sweet flag; the most familiar one in cultiva- 

 tion is the calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica), not botanic- 

 ally a lily. The plants all have spikes of very small flowers 

 closely massed together, and usually subtended by a 

 broad leaf-like structure which is known as the spathe; this 

 is usually highly colored, pure white, yellow, red or scarlet, 

 and is commonly thought of as the flower, though not 

 botanically so; species of Anthurium, known as tail-flowers, 

 are abundant in the West Indies and tropical America, as is 

 the genus Philodendron, signifying tree-loving, on account of 



