March, 1850. BANYAN. CYCAS. PLANTS IMPORTED IN ICE. 217 



a little pot of Avater is hung, and after they have made 

 some progress, they are inclosed in bamboo tubes, and 

 so coaxed down to the ground. They are mere slender 

 whip-cords before reaching the earth, where they root, 

 remaining very lax for several months ; but gradually, as 

 they grow and swell to the size of cables, they tighten, and 

 eventually become very tense. This is a curious pheno- 

 menon, and so rapid, that it appears to be due to the rooting 

 part mechanically dragging down the aerial. The branch 

 meanwhile continues to grow outwards, and being supplied 

 by its new support, thickens beyond it, whence the props 

 always slant outwards from the ground towards the 

 circumference of the tree. 



Cycas trees abound in the gardens, and, though generally 

 having only one, or rarely two crowns, they have sometimes 

 sixteen, and their stems are everywhere covered with leafy 

 buds, which are developed on any check being given to 

 the growth of the plant, as by the operation of trans- 

 plantation, which will cause as many as 300 buds to appear 

 in the course of a few years, on a trunk eight feet high. 



During my stay at the gardens, Dr. Falconer received 

 a box of living plants packed in moss, and transported in 

 a frozen state by one of the ice ships from North 

 America : * they left in November, and arriving in March, 

 I was present at the opening of the boxes, and saw 391 

 plants (the whole contents) taken out in the most perfect 

 state. They were chiefly fruit-trees, apples, pears, peaches, 

 currants, and gooseberries, with beautiful plants of the 

 Venus' fly-trap {Dionaa muscipula). More perfect success 

 never attended an experiment : the plants were in vigorous 



* The ice from these ships is sold in the Calcutta market for a penny a pound, 

 to great profit; it has already proved an invaluable remedy in cases of inflammation 

 and fever, and has diminished mortality to a very appreciable extent. 



