THE PALM HOUSE 135 
the palms, too, are exceedingly useful plants, yielding oils, fibres, 
wax, etc. 
Nothing contributes more to the tropical aspect of the house than 
its climbing plants. Some of the palm trunks in the centre of the 
Climbers ^ ouse are clothed with them. Most remarkable of all, per- 
haps, are the examples of Calamus, climbing palms which 
thrust their way through other trees and hold their place securely 
by numerous recurving hooks on the leaves. They grow to extra- 
ordinary lengths, yet are scarcely ever much thicker than a walking- 
stick. In Museum II. there is a specimen which is 123 yards long. 
Very striking also are Monstera deliciosa, with large, handsomely- 
cut, perforated leaves, Philodendrons, climbing fig-trees, and species 
of Vitis. Reaching from the gallery to the roof in one long loop 
is a climbing plant which suggests the lianas of an equatorial forest ; 
it is Lonchocarpus Barteri, from tropical Africa. 
A peculiarly exotic and effective type of vegetation is that of a 
tall, slender stem, naked except at the top, where it is crowned by 
a mass of foliage. The palms themselves, of course, are the com- 
monest examples, but there are others of the dicotyledonous class 
also frequent in this house, such as Clavija, Theophrasta, Grias, and 
Sterculia. 
