KEW GARDENS. 



21 



Thibet, looking in its paper package something hke a mis-shapen 

 chees9 — another sort compressed hke scrap-cake for dogs : small 

 hall tea^ answering to bull's eyes for children, and large ball tea 

 enclosed in the husks of Indian corn. The climax of all, as fancy 

 articles in this line, are ivheai-slieaf tea^ in bundles just large 

 enough to make a good cup or two — and twisted tea or old-man's 

 eyebrows. 



As a pendant to the dairy-plants the light-giving ones may be 

 adduced. In the first place we have candle-wicks from China, 

 made of the pith of a plant, as well as our own rushhght wicks, 

 the pith of Jiincus effusus^ of which a curious twisted variety is 

 to be seen in the little Froggery in the centre of the hardy Ferne- 

 ry between the Temple of ^olus and the Museum. Then there 

 are seeds of the Croton sehifera or Chinese tallow-plant, with can- 

 dles manufactured therefrom ; candles made from the acorns of 

 an oah of New Grenada, from the Myrica segregaia of New Gre- 

 nada, from the wax of Myrica parvifolia^ and of Myrica macro- 

 carpa. 



Those who are fond of observing extreme plants will find plenty 

 in some shape. The Museum has in a dried state the Rhododen- 

 dron nivale — the most alpine shrub in the world — brought by 

 Dr. Hooker from an elevation upon Kinchin Jonga, equal to 17,- 

 500 feet above the ocean level. And the Garden has the most 

 southern tree, the evergreen beech, Fagus betuloides, from Tierra 

 del Fuego. That it is a real tree is evidenced by the fact that 

 Captain King made large boats that would hold several men from 

 one trunk, which happened to grow in a sheltered valley ; while 

 on the exposed heights of Hermit Island the same species is so 

 dwarfish and stunted, and the branches so densely compacted, like 

 other plants in similar situations — (see the undetermined alsina- 

 ceous plant from Thibet in the Museum) — that the traveller is able 

 literally to walk upon the tops of them ! For such plants in the 

 south of England the summer's heat is more to be feared than the 

 winter's wet or cold. They droop and are overpowered, like the 

 white bears in the Regent's Park, under the rays of our oppres- 

 sive sun. 



Herbivorous animals are well known, and are supposed to fall 

 in conveniently with the natural order of things ; but we are here 

 informed that there exist — in revenge — CMrnivorous vegetables. — 

 On the mantel-shelf stood, and may still stand, a glass case con- 



