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fixed or quoted for any scientific: purpose; they have in fact, the safne 
-relationship to tke ao from which. they have originated as beddin 
pelargoniums bear to Pelargonium zonale or as the drumhead and other 
cabbages to Brassica oleracea. 
Guide to Museum II.—An “Official Guide to the Museums . of 
Economic Botany Ne No. IL" lad lately been issued. The building now 
p A: s No. II. Museum was the ne starting point of the whole 
eries of museums at e first guide to its contents was 
published by Sir William ide at his own cost in 1855. The 
foundation of the museum consisted of the director's private collections, 
Mus few objects already belonging to the garden, and some given by 
. John Smith, whose son, Mr. Alexander Smith, received the 
iris ment of Curator. In 1857 the collections illustrating the 
Dicotyledons and Rae were removed from No. IT. to their 
present position in Museum No. I., opposite the Palm House. After 
that the collections illustrating Monocotyledons and the Cryptogams or 
flowerless plants were rearranged in Museum No 
enlarged in 1881 by the addition of a small west wing. "No. II. is at 
the northern end of the Herbaceous ground, three minutes’ walk from 
No. I. The present guide is the first entirely devoted to Monocot tyledons 
and Cryptogams. It contains notes on the Orchid, Ginger, Iris, 
Narcissus, and Lily ires and affords specially valuable information 
respecting the Palm order which furnishes the daily food, habitation 
given to ketlilok of cem subjects that have appeared from time 
time in the Kew Bulletin 
Seeds of Juan Fernandez Plants.— Kew is indebted to Mr, J. Sóhrens, 
of the Santiago Botanic Garden, for a quantity of seed of the choiita, 
the only palm (Juania australis) inhabiting the island. It is peculiar 
to Juan Fernandez, and is now almost confined to inaccessible situations. 
In addition there are twenty pekt of seeds of other kinds of plants 
from the same source. 
Cyathea medullaris—An exceptionally tall specimen of this, the 
tallest of all the tree-ferns of New Zealand, has been for many years a 
striking feature in the Temperate house at Kew. It was tes by 
H.R.H. the late Prince Consort in 1856, and was then of considerable 
size, so that its age now would something like 60 
d 
this year it showed symptoms of ill-health, and it finally clined at the 
end of June. Its stem was then 31 feet in length and a foot in 
diameter 3 feet from the ground. When in robust health it bore a 
this species often attains a height of 60 feet; the caudex is slender, 
with a large conical base of hard root-fibres, closely matted together to the 
thickness of a yard or more. There are Several handsome examples of 
this fern in the Temperate house still, one of which was chem to 
Kew by Lord Swansea in 1887 and is now about 20 feet higl 
