134 ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW 
Screw 
Pines. 
its stem is but eight feet high. It produced a male cone in 1819, 
an event of such interest at that time that it brought Sir Joseph 
Banks to Kew specially to see it — a visit which proved to be his last. 
A remarkable species is E. horridus, with the leaf divisions cut up 
into spiny lobes. Noblest of all, however, is E. Altensteinii, of which 
there is one specimen with leaves nine feet long. Three species of 
Dioon, a Mexican genus, make a handsome group distinguishable 
always by the flat, comb-like arrangements of the leaf divisions. 
Specimens of Cycas from tropical Asia, and others of Macrozamia from 
Australia, help to form a collection which has no rival anywhere in 
Europe, either in the number of species it comprises or in the size 
and beauty of the individual specimens. 
At the north end of the house the most striking feature is a group 
of those strange plants known to botanists under the generic name 
of Pandanus, and commonly spoken of as screw-pines. These 
plants have long, narrow, spirally-arranged leaves, and are 
supported mainly on stiff aerial roots which, as the plant 
grows and spreads, are continually being developed from the branches. 
They grow downwards until they enter the soil, when they help to 
prop up the branches and do their part also in supplying the tree 
with sustenance. In some instances the plants are entirely sup- 
ported by these stilt-like roots. 
Near each staircase leading to the gallery is a giant bamboo. The 
finer one of these — Dendrocalamus giganteus, from the Malay Archi- 
pelago, — although it does not rival the bamboos as seen in their 
native forests, has stems one foot in circumference. 
Bananas have long been successfully grown here, and fine bunches 
of fruit are borne every year. The splendid foliage, too, is always 
a source of admiration. Provided space and head- 
room be plentiful, their cultivation is easy. They 
require a tropical heat, abundant atmospheric and root 
moisture, and they should be planted in rich loam where the roots 
have ample space. Among other plants of great value to mankind 
that are growing in this house may be mentioned : — Coffee-trees, 
which bear fruit regularly ; cocoa ; durian ; Carludovica palmata, the 
plant from whose leaves Panama hats are made; and the famous 
“ traveller’s tree ” of Madagascar ( Ravenala madagascariensis), a 
plant with noble leaves, in the sheathing bases of which water to 
the amount of a pint or quart collects and keeps pure. Many of 
Bananas, 
Coffee, etc. 
