5 



admired, but it has never shown any signs of flowering. I have seen 

 it flowering at Peradeniya in Ceylon and fruiting on Mount Ma tang 

 in Borneo at a height of about 1,000 feet. 



Of North American plants few thrive here if one excepts some 

 of the Southern States. Sun-flowers, H elianthus annum, Artichokes 

 H. Tuberosus, and other of these composites do well. Sun-flowers 

 can be carried on through three or four generations. Artichokes 

 flower though the plants do not develop as tall as they do in England. 

 They produce abundance of tubers. The cultivated Zinnias and 

 Tagetes gradually deteriorate and cease to fruit after a few years. 

 The Californian and Floridan palms will not stand the climate, but 

 Zamia pumila grows and flowers well in pots. 



South American plants. — The plants of the West Indies grow- 

 readily and well, almost without exception. The Mexican plants of 

 the hot- low country are readily grown, as are the Tropical South 

 American plants, with the exceptions of plants from high altitudes. 

 No Masdevallias or Sobralias, and hardly any Odontoglossums or 

 Laelias have been induced to flower here. Miltonias, Oncidiums 

 (a few) . Cattleyas Stanhopeas, Catasetum, have been grown with 

 some success. From temperate and subtropic South America little 

 can be grown. 



Verbenas can be grown fairly well, but do not fruit. 



Herbaceous plants introduced from other countries as seed may 

 even if the seed is good fail to germinate at all. In most cases, 

 however, the seeds germinate and grow for a short time at least 



The opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, was introduced on several 

 occasions from India. The seed germinated and grew for an inch 

 or so and then all the plants perished, in spite of all the care taken 

 of them. Another poppy, P. orientate, grew a little larger, and one 

 about three inches tall produced a flower but then all perished. 

 Sweet-peas are often introduced, after germinating they become 

 drawn up with stems very thin and pale leaves, occasionally growing 

 to a considerable height and then perishing without flowering. 

 Occasionally plants about six inches tall produce small and 

 wretched flowers. Lobelia Erinus usually germinates and 

 produces plenty of leafy stems with irregular and often deformed 

 leaves, and a few flowers here and there. This style of growth is due 

 undoubtedly to the very wet climate. It is not of course caused by 

 the rain falling on the plant, nor the ground being saturated merely, 

 as that could be obviated by growing under glass, and restricting 

 the water, but simply from the humidity of the air. Many plants 

 of herbaceous or half-woody structure are directly killed by the 

 attacks of fungi during the wet season, when not only planted out 

 in the ground but also in pots. An especially noxious fungus of this 

 kind appears sporadically in December, and other rainy months, in 

 the form of a mass of mycelium covered with very small globose 

 orange or white sclerotia ; apparently commencing on decaying 

 vegetable matter such as a rotting leaf, it attacks the plant at the collar 

 and is fatal in a few days. A plant of Lobelia nicotiancefolia, 



