278 On the Culture o/Rare Plants. 



whether it was Costus dulcis, or Arabicus : for all agreed in 

 thinking that it must be one, if not both of them, though 

 unquestionably this species produces neither of those justly 

 exploded drugs. Not many years after this period, Dr. 

 Milnek's eyes became very dim, but he retained a strong 

 affection for his plants to the last : and I have often had the 

 delight of leading that venerable old botanist to feel and 

 smell at his Laurus Camphor a, Eriocephahis, Tarchonanthus, 

 Schinus molle, Ceratonia, Erica arborea, Chamcerops humilis, 

 Pelargonium cucullatum, capitatum and gibbosum, when he 

 could hardly distinguish them in any other way. Some time 

 before his death, being no longer able to walk to his garden, 

 he presented me with many of his green-house plants ; and 

 the individual Chamcerops above mentioned, which he had 

 received from Mr. Philip Miller in 1756, after being in 

 my collection till 1798, and for a shorter time in Sir Wil- 

 fred Lawson's, is still living in the botanic garden at 

 Liverpool. His more tender plants, which he was very anxious 

 to have preserved in the county, he offered to Lord Viscount 

 Irwin, who, at his seat of Temple Newsham, in that neigh- 

 bourhood, had built a large stove for Pine Apples, but devoted 

 the flues to tender exotics. There, accordingly, this Costus 

 was removed, with Zingiber officinale, Kampferia Galanga, 

 Pancratium amamum, Hamanthus puniceus, Brunswigia, Ama- 

 ryllis Reghice, -and Gloxinia; which last plant, though now so 

 difficult to cultivate, I well remember used to flower most 

 abundantly in that bark-pit, every autumn. Some useful 

 hints, I trust, will be taken from this long history, relative to 

 the culture of both the species of Costus now in the stoves 

 about London, and many other plants, which seldom, if ever, 



