166 : QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ava., 1898. 
Watch them for a time, and you will be astonished to see them suddenly 
change their position with a little jerk as if they were alive, and not feeling 
comfortable as they were before, had determined to try another position. After 
a short time they change with another jerk, sometimes one at a time, some- 
times both together. And thus they go round and round, the stipules all 
over the plant standing at all possible angles with the leaves. It is a native of 
India. ‘To enter fully into a recital of the causes which produce these move- 
ments, spontaneous and otherwise, observed in the leaves of many plants, 
would take up a good deal of space, and be somewhat dry reading; but briefly 
it may be said to be caused by the vessels on one side of the small glands at 
the bases of the leaf-stalks becoming filled with fluid under atmospheric or other 
stimulus, and thus turning the leaf over to one side, as if you were to place a 
bladder under one edge of a box as itstands on the floor, and then pump water 
into the bladder. The box will heel over. This is a crude description, but it 
roughly illustrates the process, and the subject is a highly technical one. This 
plant is readily propagated by seeds, which it bears in profusion. 
Close by is a plant which hails from Western Africa, and which is 
remarkable for the possession of a very strong and serviceable fibre. It is 
called the Bowstring Hemp (Sanseviera guineensis). There are several 
species of this genus, all of which produce strong fibre. Sanseviera cylindrica 
grows close by, and, as its name implies, the leaf is cylindrical, like a riding- 
whip. It comes from Angola, and its fibres make a capital cordage. The 
broad-leaved species are distinctly ornamental, and are not too particular as to 
where they grow. Shade and sunshine appear to be all one to them, and they 
take hold and flourish in rocky ground or in ground impoverished by the roots 
of trees. It is quite easy, too, to propagate them, which is done by simply 
chopping off a piece having some roots and planting it. his in its turn will 
soon produce plenty of off-shoots. 
Leaving the flight of steps on our right, we pass on to the next border 
(L. 10,11). Note the Philodendron (tree-lover) ; how it grows quite freely 
about the giant fan palm, sprawling among the old bases of the leaf-stalks. It 
was formerly thought necessary to grow these tropical creepers under cover 
here, but they are found to succeed as well or better out of doors. 
Visitors from other colonies and from Europe will be interested in 
noting, on a huge palm close by, young staghorn ferns in every stage of 
erowth, from the small shield-like blotch of green membrane, which arises from 
the wind-carried spore in the first instance, to the complete plant. Did you 
ever examine the brown blotches which may be seen on the backs of most 
ferns? If not, get a good magnifying glass and look at them. You 
will see myriads of little pellets—spores, they are called—arranged in a variety 
of ways in a number of curious receptacles, the shapes of which are very various. 
Anyone can raise ferns from spores in this country with a box anda pane of 
glass, a little supply of peat, and a big supply of patience. The peat may be 
the rotting bases of old staghorns. You put some in your box, not broken 
up too fine. When you find that the fern frond, when shaken over a sheet of 
white paper, deposits a brown dust, that is the time to sow the spores—the dust 
which is left on the paper. Simply shake it over the peat. No cover is required. 
Put your pane of glass over the box, keep shaded and damp, never allow to get 
dry, and in due course you will see first little expansions of green, then young 
fronds, and, finally, your young ferns can be removed one by one, and haying 
kept them close for a week or two you may take them to your shadehouse and 
let them start life on their own account. ) 
If you look up towards the shade garden you will note some plants which 
always rivet the attention of southern und other visitors. These are the 
plants with flaunting scarlet leaves in large heads, making a brave show. It 
