2l/|. DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



We next enter a small, narrow hot-house 

 with only one stove, which is the winter resi- 

 dence of the numerous genus fig-marygold, 

 mesembiyanthemum, and other analogous plants 

 from the Cape of Good Hope : it is sufficient that 

 the heat should not descend lower than 38° 45:' 

 of Fahrenheit, or 3° of Reaumur. 



Beyond, to the right, in the side of the hill, is 

 the oldest hot-house of the garden, which was 

 built in 1 714, in the time of Vaillant, and called 

 the coffee-tree hot-house, because in it was 

 reared the coffee-plant sent from the botanical 

 garden at Leyden to Louis XIY, the seeds of 

 which have peopled the West Indies. It is 34 feet 

 long, 14 broad, and i5 in height; and is heated 

 by one stove to the temperature of 5g°. The 

 roof is glazed for only half of its breadth. Deli- 

 cate plants of the East Indies and of the torrid 

 zone are here cultivated in a bed of bark, which 

 occupies the centre. This hot-house, though 

 small, offers the most picturesque appearance 

 from the singular form and varied foliage of the 

 trees and shrubs. We here see a very beautiful 

 broad-leaved cycas, cycas circinalis, a singular 

 tree brought from the Isle of France by Joseph 

 Martin, the pith of which yields a species of 

 sago , eaten by the Inhabitants of Madagascar ; 

 the plumeria ; the lime-tree-leaved hibiscus, hi- 



