338 
carried out in the houses in which the plants are exhibited. They 
require work sheds in which not merely will valuable plants 
suffer no injury, but the gardeners can work with convenience 
and comfort. = is impossible to get good work done with the 
best of workmen if there isa want of due regard to the health 
and E SO edd of those who have | to use them. It is 
not, however, always easy to get funds for appliances which, 
however necessary , make no external show 
During the pa year Her — Office of Works decided 
to remedy this state of things, or at any rate to make a vigorous 
commencement. The following important items have been 
poene d of :— 
I. Fernery Shed.—This serves houses Nos. II. and III. and the 
adjoining pits. The reconstructed shed is 58 ft. long by 14 ft. 
8in. wide. The roof has been boarded, a concrete floor laid 
LL and it has been properly warmed and thoroughly lighted. 
It is continuous with the Filmy fern house, into which it opens. 
II. Propagating Shed and Packing Room.—This has been recon- 
structed (50 ft. by 11 ft. 6 in.) on the same principles. Large 
consignments of plants from Indian and Colonial Botanie Gardens 
or from m foreign correspondents can be handled on arrival without 
risking injury, and wardian cases for abroad can be kept at 
a proper temperature while inier ius despatch. 
III. Decorative Department Shed.—This has hag A recon- 
structed and enlarged (77 ft. by 11 ft. 6 in.) The k for which 
it was used had hitherto been condnctel under Sis puse 
IV. South Nursery Pit.—This furnishes the supply of new plants 
for the Great Temperate House. It has been converted into an 
admirable span-roofed house 70 ft. long s 18 ft. wide. 
Models of Fruits and Flowers from Amboina.—Through the 
kindness of Dr. Treub, the ia of the Botanic Garden, 
Buitenzorg, Java, we have recently been enabled to add 
many interesting. Specimens to the Museum Collections, Some 
Konigii, Vahl, a shrub with succulent stems, distributed over 
Tropical E. Asia, Australia, and Polynesia; and the foliage is 
represented by feathers. The m ikalti of these articles is 
not a modern dgra as a reference to the Herbarium 
Aubinh vol. iv., p. 117, will show. Rumphius there gives 
an interesting HAM of the uses of this plant. In Zooker's 
S M ae of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany cro aes d 
, the employment of this plant for the ma of 
Dicit flowers is also referred to as being fully y described by 
Rumphius before 1690 
