THE HOT-HOUSES. 201 



interior staircase, and opens into the botanic 

 garden. The roof is glazed, and is covered with 

 mats in very cold and sometimes in very hot 

 weather, and at the approach of storms. 



The upper part, which was built by Buff on in 

 1788, on the spot formerly occupied by the seed- 

 beds, is T25 feet and a half long, 12 feet 4 inches 

 broad, and i5 feet in height, with four stoves, 

 and a bed of spent bark in the middle for the 

 pots. It was at first intended for a hundred fruit- 

 trees of the tropicks, which were to be planted 

 in the soil, and made to fructify for the purpose 

 of disseminating them in the south of France ; 

 but so many plants from those regions have since 

 been received, that the original project has been 

 abandoned. Among its contents are many very 

 rare and beautiful vegetables : we shall mention 

 only two large stocks of the pandanus odoratis- 

 simus(i), green-spined screwpine, whose trunk, 

 swollen at the top and spirally furrowed by the 

 impression of the former leaves, is surrounded 

 near the base by sprouts which take root and 

 support it like buttresses on every side ; the rave- 

 nala (2), of the musa or banana family, which is 



(1) The male flowers are in request for their odour : a small bunch 

 of them suffices to perfume an apartment, for which purpose they are 

 sold in Egypt. 



(2) The ravenala equals the palms in height ; its naked trunk is. 

 crowned with leaves from 6 to 10 feet in length, and 2 in breadth, dis- 



