FLOOR.] 
SECOND BOTANICAL ROOM. 
201 
lar substance surrounded by the vascular structures, which form a 
close cylinder perforated at regular intervals by narrow meshes, from 
the out-turned edges of which the vascular bundles are given off to 
the fronds. The sections of the common male fern (Lastrea Fllix- 
mas), show that its humbler stem has a similar structure to the 
arborescent forms beside it. A large series of fern-stems occupy the 
eastern wall of the inner room. 
The Wall Cases on the left-hand side of the next room are devoted 
to Monocotyledonous plants. 
The GluaiacEjE, comprising the grasses and sedges, are represented 
in Case 7. Specimens of the principal grain-producing GrarninecB are 
exhibited ; among them is placed the so-called mummy-wheat [Triti- 
cum turgidum), erroneously supposed to have been obtained from 
grains found in a mummy-case, which retained their vitality. The 
most authentic instance of old seeds germinating is to be seen in Wall 
Case 22, where are exhibited the seeds of Nelumbium specicsum, from 
the herbarium of Sir Hans Sloane, which were germinated by Robert 
Brown in 1850, when they were 150 years old. Several species of 
Sorghum and Panicam, extensively cultivated in tropical regions as 
sources of food, are exhibited, as well as a large series of the cobs of 
Maize (Zea Mays), and a complete plant grown at Fulham with 
three perfect cobs below, and the terminal staminal (male) flowers 
above. On the floor of the Case is placed the fantastic, branching 
underground stem of the Bamboo, marked with the linear scars of 
the leaf-scales, the large round scars in opposite rows of the bases of 
the aerial stems, and the smaller ones of the roots. Similar creeping 
stems of Arundo Donax and Carex paniculata are placed beside it. 
Some stems of the Bamboo are seen on the back of the Case, among 
them two with short triangular joints ; additional specimens, some of 
enormous size, are placed at the west end of the room, one of which, 
grown at Chatsworth, attained a height of forty feet in six weeks, 
being at the rate of a foot a day. Some seeds of Bamboo are placed 
in the Wall Case, and the curious fleshy and pear-shaped fruit of a 
species from Arracan (Melocanna banibusoides). Specimens of Arun- 
dinaria Schomburgkii, the reed through which the small arrows 
dipped in the virulent Woorali poison are blown by the native Indians 
of Guiana , the smooth and straight joints attain a length of sixteen 
or seventeen feet. The sides of the Case contain specimens of the light 
and elegant inflorescence of two species of Gynerium, — G. saccJia- 
roides, from Equinoctial America, and G. argenteum, the Pampas 
grass of Brazil. The Cyperacece are represented by large specimens 
of the Egyptian Paper-reed {Papyrus antiquorum), placed against the 
back of the Case, and a smaller specimen from Sicily. The triangular 
cellular stem of this plant was cut into thin slices ; and these slices, 
after being beaten together and pressed, formed the famous paper of 
the ancients. Specimens of suffrutescent Eriocaulons from Brazil are 
placed on the sides of this Case. 
In Case 8 are some specimens of arborescent Juncace^e. Kingia 
australis, from Western Australia, is a tall, palm-like tree, the stem of 
