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CONTENTS. 



KEW GARDENS. 



Reflections on gardens — Opinions of Bacon and Hervey — Taste for 

 covered gardens — Kew Gardens not appreciated ; case in point — Num- 

 ber of species of plants contained in them — The advantages they aiford 

 the botanical student — Varieties of the pine tree — Architectural con- 

 servatory — Means of creating artificial heat — Living tapestry — Jea 

 shrubs — Private propagation house — The moving plant — The humble 

 plant — The American fly-trap — The caricature plant — The Victoria 

 regia — Wonders of the palm stove — Poisonous plants — The holly-leaved 

 bachelor female — Description of the museum — The true method of la- 

 belling plants — The caterpillar fungus, a carnivorous vegetable — Aid 

 which the museum aff'ords in the dissipation of vulgar errors — Amusing 

 instances of quackery — Papers created by the hornet and wasp — Na- 

 tional value of Kew Gardens — The vast variety of its contents — Its 

 utility in disseminating botanical information throughout the globe — 

 The aid it affords to schools of drawing and design — Number of annual 

 visitors — Regulations pp. 1 — 32 



Value of the diamond unchanged by modern discovery — Ineffectual at- 

 tempts to convert gaseous or solid carbon into diamond — The diamond 

 known from remote antiquity — Used as an ornament in the royal head- 

 dress — Profusion of diamonds at oriental courts — Worn by the Russian 

 nobility — The drawing-rooms of Queen Victoria — Mystical properties 

 ascribed to this gem in ancient times — Discovery of its combustibility 

 by Newton — Experiments to ascertain its properties — The diamond 



A CHAPTER ON DIAMONDS. 



