from its compact cone-like head of flowers enclosed in colored 
bracts. Nearly all the rest of the bench is taken up by a collection 
of Begonias, of which Begonia Rex is the best known. These 
are all natives of tropical forests, some grown for the beautiful 
markings of their foliage and others for the curious flowers which 
are usually pink or white and borne in weak clusters. 
On the west bench is a miscellaneous collection of tropical 
plants from all over the world, among them several kinds of 
Acalypha. Of these, the Chenille Plant, A .hispida , with red finger- 
like clusters of flowers, is the most striking. At one end of the 
bench are several varieties of Croto?i , handsome foliage plants, 
much used for decorative planting in the tropics, and all belong- 
ing to the same genus, Codiaeum, of the Spurge family. 
A tub on the floor contains the most interesting aquatic in our 
collections, the Lace-leaf, Apo?iogeton fenestralis. The leaves are 
permanently and naturally skeletonized, the delicate tracery of 
the midrib and finer veins appearing as if some agency had etched 
out the body of the leaf, leaving only the fine framework. It grows 
in shady pools and streams in Madagascar. 
House 2 is devoted to orchids, of which more than 6000 species 
are known. The garden collection of perhaps 50 species, is rich 
in Raphiopedilum , which is on the east bench and simulates our 
native Lady’s-Slipper. Dendrobium ?iobile and Uendrobiutn 
aureum, both fine Asiatic orchids, with beautiful long flower 
clusters (midwinter), are near this, also the lavender flowered 
D.primulinum with a touch of white. 
On the west bench near the north end of the house, and also 
on the center bench, are many specimens of Cattleya , which are 
the only orchids familiar to those people who buy them at the 
florists. They are legion in the color and form of the flowers, 
though unusually large, and among the best of them are Cattleya 
Trianae , C. Schroederae, C. Mendelii , and C. labiata, the latter 
being the best known. All are in the collections, and flower 
mostly in the winter. Near them on the west bench is Angraecum 
sesquipedale , from Madagascar, whose somewhat unprepossessing 
name conceals an interesting prophecy by Darwin. When first 
shown the flower with its extraordinarily' long tube, sometimes 
18 inches long, he said that a moth with a tongue long enough to 
reach the nectar would some day be discovered in Madagascar. 
Years afterward it was found by Humboldt. 
In the slate tank at the end of the house are some plants 
of the Water Hyacinth from Brazil, a floating aquatic of great 
beauty but so rampant that it literally fouls the paddle-wheels of 
steamers in the St. John’s River, Florida, where it was intro- 
duced. Hanging over the tank are a few of the Pitcher plants, 
Nepenthes , inhabitants of the steaming tropical forests of the old 
world, and famous as insect catchers. A digestive juice is 
secreted at the base of the pitcher, which is arranged so that an 
insect can go in but notout. 
The door leading to the next house is kept closed and this 
house, No. 1, which is used for research work, is not open to the 
public. Retracing our steps, then, through the orchid house and 
through houses 3 and 4, we come again to house 5. Still keeping 
to the right we reach the door to House 11. 
House 11 — Just inside the door on the east bench is Mother-of- 
Thousands, Saxifraga sarmentosa , from China and Japan, which, 
if broken up at the joints, will produce a plant for each piece. 
Beyond is a small plant of Cas7tarina tornlosa , which is a tree on 
tropical sea shores. An Australian silk-oak, Grevillea robusta. 
