56 
DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY. 
[UPPER 
tains of Valencia, presented by the Spanish Commissioners to the 
Exhibition of 186Q. 
The Western Wall, on either side of the doorway, is chiefly oc- 
cupied by specimens of Palms. To the right may be noticed an 
entire trunk, together with longitudinal sections, of the Date-Palm 
(Phcenix dactylifera, L.) By the side of these are two entire 
trunks of the Wax-Palm of the Brazils (Copernicia cerifera, Mart.), 
one of them having its upper part rounded and polished, and both 
displaying the remarkable spiral arrangement of the persistent bases 
of the fronds, which in one tends upwards to the right, and in the 
other to the left. A polished longitudinal section of an entire stem, and 
two other smaller sections, exhibit the internal structure of this beautiful 
Palm. Next to the doorway on either side is a longitudinal section, one 
of them polished, of a very tall specimen of Kingia australis, R. Br., 
and on the left an entire stem, of nearly equal height, with transverse 
sections in a case attached. Adjoining to this on the left is a fine 
specimen of an arborescent Vellozia from the province of Minas 
Geraes in Brazil, and beyond it a portion of the very thick stem of a 
species of Bamboo from Pulo Geun, together with a stem of the Com- 
mon Bamboo (Bambdsa arundinacea, Willd.), cultivated at Chats- 
worth, and which attained a height of upwards of forty feet within six 
weeks after its first appearance above ground. A trunk of the Cocoa- 
Nut (Cocos nucifera, L.), and a fine longitudinal section of that 
of the Palmeira-Palm (Borassus flabelliformis, L.), with a polished 
cylinder from the upper part of the stem, are also placed at this end 
of the room. 
Returning along the Wall Cases of the southern side, the first Case, 
numbered 10, contains specimens of Conifers and Cycade.e. On 
the back and sides of this Case are suspended some remarkable cones ; 
cross-sections of the Wood of Araucaria Cookii, R. Br., from the Isle 
of Pines, one of which exhibits the mode in which the whorl of branches 
is given off; a polished knot of Araucaria excelsa, R. Br., with a 
section of the same ; and a remarkable specimen of Coniferous Wood, 
forming part of a beam found by Mr. Layard in the ruins of Nim- 
roud, and having the microscopic structure of the Yew (Taxus bac- 
cata, L.). On the shelves below are placed cones of the different 
species of Araucaria, Dammara and Pinus : fruit-bearing branches of 
Widdringtonia Wallichii, from the Cedarberg, S. Africa; and balls 
of the leaves of the Larch (P. larix, L.) felted together by the 
action of the waves, from the lakes of Cumberland. In the centre, 
at the back of the Case, is a model of a female flower-bud of Ence- 
piialartos Caffer, Lehm., and of fruit-bearing scales of the same. 
On the shelf below are several sections, transverse and longitudinal, of 
the wood of the same species and of a species of Cycas. At the back 
above are placed sections of the trunks of Encephalartos Alten- 
bteind and Encephalartos horridus; and on the right-hand side of 
the Case fronds of Zamia spiralis, Salisb., from New South Wales. 
Case 1 1 contains, in its lower part, specimens in continuation of 
the family of Conifeile, the most remarkable of which is a section of 
