AMKRTCAR AGRICULTURIST. [April. 
THE GREAT PALM-HOUSE AND CONSERVATORY AT KEW GARDENS. 
Visit to the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
“ Where and what are these gardens 1 Tell us 
about them ; it’s just the talk for this weather.” 
Well, they are public botanic gardens at Kew, a 
village on the river Thames, 7 miles from London, 
England. They are maintained by the govern¬ 
ment, and contain the finest collection of plants 
in the world. Within the premises are a series 
of ornamental buildings, in classic and Chinese 
styles, many of which were erected by Sir Wm. 
Chambers, about the year 1760 ; here, also, are 
all the known trees, shrubs, and plants of the 
globe, which will grow out of doors in that cli¬ 
mate, and for those too tender, glass houses of 
great hight and extent have been built. They 
also contain ponds for fish and water-fowl, with 
a well arranged Geographical and Natural Mu¬ 
seum. All these things are not collected and main¬ 
tained for private gratification ; they are open to 
the well behaving public, and as Dr. Lindlev ob¬ 
serves, “are designed chiefly to promote the ad¬ 
vancement of science and the arts, of medicine, 
commerce, agriculture, horticulture, and various 
branches of manufactures.” The government 
employs plant collectors in every part of the 
world, who send home roots, seeds, and specimens 
of woods and plants. This garden is but a huge En¬ 
cyclopaedia, printed with facts, instead of words! 
Now, let us go in, and take a hasty look : our 
time is very short. What a magnificent entrance¬ 
way ! These pillars and gates of iron are grand 
enough for a royal residence. Look here to the 
left, you conifer-loving man, walk through the 
old Arboretum. See this Cedar of Lebanon, its 
gigantic branches cover full 200 feet of ground. 
Yonder are some of the newer evergreens. This 
Deodar cedar is one of the finest. Here are some 
Araucarias in tubs, out for a Summer airing : it’s 
a pity they are not hardy ; and so of these Hima¬ 
layan and Douglas’ spruces. But here are some 
robust fellows, the Corsican pine, the Austrian 
and Bhutan pines, and the I'inus pumilio, ol Car- 
niola, sprawling and odd That Scrub pine, there, 
reminds you of Yankee land ! Here are Turkey 
oaks, the Oriental Plane tree, and Cork tree. 
Let us push on to the Temple of the Sun. As 
we pass this old Cedar of Lebanon by its side, 
hear what Sir Wm. Hooker, our guide, says : 
“ There are more Lebanon Cedars now in Eng¬ 
land, than in all the Lebanon mountains put to¬ 
gether.” Here is the Architectural Conservatory, 
and yonder (see picture) is the great Palm- 
House, looking like a gigantic bubble. A miniature 
lake has been formed on one side of the building. 
The house is entirely bf glass, set in iron, brick, 
and stone. It has a central hall and two wings : 
the center 100 feet wide, and 66 feet high, the 
wings 50 feet wide and 30 feet high. It requires 
12 furnaces to warm its boilers in Winter ; in 
Summer four keep things going. The hot water 
pipes coiled about it, are five miles long! The 
whole building, we believe, cost about $200,000. 
But here, before we go in, let us look at this 
specimen of ribbon-gardening, or “ living tapes¬ 
try,” as somebody calls it. The yellow consists 
of calceolarias, the pink and scarlet'of dwarf 
geraniums, the blue of campanulas and alyssum, 
the lavender of ageratum Mexicanum ; the bor¬ 
der is fringed with verbenas of various colors. 
—worsted work for ladies to beat, if they can ! 
Now, take a peep into this Glass-House. Here, 
just inside the door, are both the black and green 
Tea shrubs, from each of which, they say, the 
Chinese contrive to make either kind at pleasure. 
Accommodating fellows ! Yonder, is an old tree- 
paeony, remarkable only for being the original 
plant brought from China by Sir Joseph Banks, 
and is, therefore, the great or great-great-grand- 
mother of most of the tree-pa;onies in the west¬ 
ern world. Off with your hats, and down on 
your knees, ye nurserymen, for this plant has 
been the means of lining your pockets with many 
a dollar ! Push on. What’s this ! A plant in 
motion 1 the Dcsmodium girans, or moving-plant, 
which, from no perceptible cause, twists and 
twitches two of its leaflets night and day without 
cessation. And there, under a glass, is the Amer¬ 
ican Fly-trap. As soon as an insect lights upon 
the green bristle of the leaf, the two lobes close 
upon him, and hold him till he dies ; then they 
open, and wait for another victim. It is said 
that there were gigantic plants once on this globe : 
what, if there were also fly traps big enough to 
catch a man ! Notice this Caricature plant: the 
leaves green, but marked with yellow blotches, 
making an outline of the human face divine— 
more or less 1 Here is one, says Dr. Hooker, 
like Lord Brougham, and there is one said to re¬ 
semble Mrs. Caudle. Where’s Mrs. Partington? 
Goon, now. Here we have the queen of plants, 
the Victoria regia lily, swimming in a tank alone, 
the water kept as warm as that of a tropical river 
INSIDE OF THE PALM-HOUSE. 
But another look at the great Palm-House, for 
growing trees and plants, mostly of the palm tribe. 
Well is it called “ the glory of Kew Garden.” 
One can here get some little idea of a trop¬ 
ical forest. From among these fern leaves a 
tiger might very naturally rush out; huge ser¬ 
pents might climb these cocoa-nut palms. Here 
are banana trees with fruit hanging on them in 
abundance ; and the vegetable Ivory palm, whose 
nuts are molded into so many ornamental objects ; 
and the Elephant’s Foot, from South Africa, a 
tree whose gigantic root-stock resembles an 
elephant’s foot. There is the Mango tree, with 
its fruit on the end of a long stalk ; and there is 
the Chocolate tree, with flowers on the thickest 
part of its woody trunk. 
Now we come to a section where the motto 
must be, “ Touch not, taste not, handle not.” 
That plant, over there on a high shelf, is the 
“ Dumb Cane,” which palsies the lips and tongue 
of those who taste it. A few years ago another 
very poisonous plant, the Jatmpha urens, stood 
here, hut has since been killed, on account of the 
many accidents happening from it. Now, ascend 
this spiral stair case, and look down, thitty feet 
or more, upon the ferns and palms, these princes 
of the vegetable kingdom. Tropical creepers 
