We must now direct attention to some of the numerous objects in the Palm-house, a structure especially intended for the cultivation of the " Princes " of the vegetable kingdom, but by no means wholly confined to them. The Palms constitute, however, a splendid and striking feature of its vast area, and are seen to most advantage from the gallery above. The two loftiest Palms in the House are kinds of Cocoa-nut, of which one (
Cocos plumosa) is an old inhabitant of these Gardens, and the other (
Cocos coronata) was recently presented by Sir George Staunton, Bart., M. P., having been transported, though of so vast size, by railway, from that gentleman's beautiful seat, Leigh Park, Hants, in a case 42 feet in length. These, as does the common Cocoa-nut (fig. 7.), afford good examples of one numerous group of Palms which have pinnated leaves, or divided like the plume of a feather. The two stoutest Palms in the collection, easily recognized by the thickness of their trunks and the great size of the tubs in which they are placed (each single plant, with its earth and tub, being calculated to weigh 17 tons), are the West Indian or Jamaica Fan-Palms (
Sabal umbraculifera), a good example of a second extensive group, having palmate or fan-shaped leaves. The
Caryota urens may be mentioned as deviating considerably in its foliage from other Palms: each leaf is very much divided, and the ultimate divisions or leaflets resemble in shape the fin of a fish.
We may further mention in this collection the Date-Palm (
Phoenix dactylifera), producing the dates of commerce and of Scripture, and which, together with the Dwarf Palm (
Chamaerops humilis), is the most northern of all Palms (the majority being tropical), extending even into the South of Europe; the Palmyra Palm (
Borassus flabellliformis), the most difficult of Palms to rear ; the Guinea Oil-Palm (
Elaeis Guineensis), which produces the African palm-oil; the well- known Cocoa-Nut (
Cocos nucifera) (fig. 7), of which the various ses, of fruit, milk, oil, wine or toddy, wood, fibre, &c., are said to be as numerous as the days in the year; the Cabbage-Palm (
Oreodoxa oleracea), which yields the esculent substance, so called, from the crown of its stem ;
Seaforthia elegans and
Corypha australis from New Holland, and
Livistonia Borbonica,
Plectocomia elongata from Dr. Wallich, formerly called
Zalacca Assamica, which, with its singularly spiny stem (the spines being digitate, united together like the fingers of the hand, or still more resembling the foot of a Mole, admirably formed for strength) and luxuriant foliage, can hardly fail to attract the attention of the passer-by. Its leaves, when full grown, are of vast length, and pinnated like the shaft of a feather, so long, indeed, that they seem, as does the stem, to need support; and nature has provided them with the means, for the rachis, or main stalk of the leaf, at the end, extends into a lengthened slender tail, armed all along with strong deflexed hooks, by means of which, while running up among the stems, and catching hold of the branches of other trees, the foliage and stem are propped. A yet more wonderful provision of nature is observed in the young and yet unfolded leaves of this plant, during the period when they insert themselves upwards among the branches of the forests, for then these spines are directed upwards, and lie flat against the stalk of the leaf; not becoming reflexed till they are needed as a means of support. Of Arecas are the well-known
Areca Catechu and
Areca sapida;—
Arenga saccharifera; —
Phoenix sylvestris is the Wild Date of India, which yields palm, wine, and sugar ; — the Ivory-Palm or Vegetable Ivory is the
Phytelephas macroxirpa, an inhabitant of the Magdalena, New Grenada, of which the seeds constitute a substance so exactly like ivory, that they have become a considerable article of commerce, and are used for turning into a vast variety of trinkets and other articles resembling ivory; and the Wax Palm (
Ceroxylon andicola) (fig. 8.), of the Andes of New Grenada, discovered by Humboldt, of which the full-grown stem is covered with a waxy substance having the same properties as bees' wax ; — and lastly, we may observe that many kinds will be seen to have a coarse fibre separating from the base of the leaves, so strong indeed, that in the
Attalea funifera, it forms an extensive article of commerce from Para, Brazil, for the purpose of making brooms and brushes for the machines, as well as others used by hand, employed in sweeping the streets of London and other cities!
Some or other of the Bananas or Plantains may always be seen in this house, in a more or less advanced state of flower or fruit, through the whole year, their ample and delicately green foliage overtopping many of the other plants. The clusters of blossoms form a long pendent spike, and the flowers are of two kinds; those which are situated at the base of the spike being destined to become the cucumber-like fruit, while the others form a slender tail at the extremity, and are covered with concave purple scales, which gradually drop off, and permit the escape of the pollen, or fertilizing dust, which, being conveyed by the wind or by insects to the other blossoms, renders them perfect. The Banana (fig. 9) only differs from the Plantain (fig. 10.) in the form of the fruit: they are, indeed, considered by Humboldt as mere varieties. Both are of inestimable value to the inhabitants of tropical countries in the Old and New Worlds. A single cluster of fruit often weighs 70 or 80 pounds, even when produced in the stoves of this country. Besides being eaten fresh in their native land, bananas are dried as figs, or reduced to a kind of flour or meal by rasping. One kind, the Plantain, is called
Musa paradisiaca; the Banana is
Musa sapientum. A third and dwarf kind is the Chinese sort,
Musa Chinenis, often called
M. Cavendishii. The tender and succulent stems are eaten by various domestic animals: the fibre makes excellent cordage and clothing; and the leaves serve for covering houses.
The tall naked-stemmed plants in this House, with a crown of aloe-like leaves, are the
Gum-Dragon Tree (
Dracena Draco), which yields an astringent resin (called dragon's blood), formerly used in medicine, and now chiefly employed by painters as a red varnish. Lofty as these specimens are, they are pygmies compared with the stature the tree attains in its native island, Teneriffe. " The gigantic tree of Orotava," (fig. 11.) says the enlightened traveller, Humboldt, "measures 45 feet in circumference, a little above the ground." Tradition relates that this particular Dracaena was venerated by the Guanchos (the aborigines of Teneriffe), as was the Elm of Ephesus by the Greeks, and that in A. D. 1400 it was as large and hollow as it is now ! Its growth being extremely slow, we may be sure the Orotava Tree is of incalculable age: doubtless it and the Baobab are the oldest vegetable inhabitants of our planet.
The Papyrus of the Ancients (fig. 12.) is easily recognizable here by its tall reed-like triangular stem, arising from the water of a tub. It is crowned with the copious clustered flower-stalks. The stoutest individuals were selected by the ancients, and from the white pith which fills the interior their paper was prepared. On this it is said that most of the old manuscripts are inscribed, especially those which have been brought to light by the excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
The Sugar-Cane (fig. 13.), which happily can be no longer denounced, with regard to this country, as "
The cane whose luscious juice supplies Europe's blood-purchased luxuries,"
distinguishes itself by its very large yet grassy character, long and pale green foliage, and closely jointed stout stem : this latter, contrary to the character of most grasses, is solid (not hollow), and contains the saccharine juice, which is extracted by pressure between heat rolling cylinders. The waste stems, thus squeezed dry, are generally used for fuel to boil the juice, and are found to be so impregnated with a siliceous or flinty substance, that masses of glassy slag are in the course of a short time, deposited in the furnaces and require to be removed.
The Bamboo (fig. 14.), when fully grown, is infinitely more gigantic than its ally the Sugar-Cane, attaining during one season, in its native wilds, a height exceeding 100 feet: its immense hollow stalks are applied to an infinity of domestic and useful purposes.
The Zamias, Cycases, and Encephalartus, at the south end of this House, are worthy of attention. Four of the finest have recently heen presented by Mr. Anderne and Mr. Moxon from the interior of S. Africa. They are inhabitants of hot countries, chiefly in the southern hemisphere; and assuredly, within our days at least, nothing like them has ever been seen growing in temperate climates ; but similar plants are found fossilized in the oolite formation of England, as at Portland Island, proving that in former ages these strange, forms were denizens of this country ! Their pinnated leaves are peculiarly harsh and rigid. The Cycases (fig. 15.) yield a kind of sago in the East Indies. Here are also noble specimens of the curious Elephants Foot (
Testudinaria Elephantipes).
The
Calathea (formerly called Maranta)
zebrina, or
Zebra-Plant, is easily known by its large beautifully striped copious foliage: each leaf is banded with shades of velvety green of different hues, and lined, as it were, beneath with purple. It is only by putting some of the leaves a little on one side that the clusters of purple flowers can be perceived. Here are seen two kinds of Strelitzia, one is
Strelitzia Regina (see p. 9.) 4-5 feet high, showing its truly royal blossoms in winter and early spring, the other is the stately
S. augusta, with the most ample leaf-blade of any plant in the House.
Good plants of the Papaw (fig. 16.) and others of the Chocolate Tree are placed in this Tropical House. The juice of the former is employed in the East and West Indies for rendering tough meat tender; and, having this property, it is, of course, much prized by good housewives in climates where it is necessary to cook all animal food on the day when it is killed. From the seeds of the Chocolate Tree, as may be inferred from its name, is produced that " drink of the Gods," and also Cocoa (a very different thing from the Cocoa-Nut Palm, and a corruption of the Indian
name Cacao, whence the botanical name,
Theobroma Cacao) (fig. 17.)
Of Euphorbias and Cactuses only those few are placed here which are too large to be accommodated in the stoves more peculiarly devoted to succulent plants.
Euphorbia splendens and
E. Bojeri are conspicuous for their scarlet flowers and thorny stems;
E. grandidens for its lofty stout trunk, twelve or fourteen feet high, and sending out spreading whorled branches like a candelabrum. The slightest incision in the bark causes a great quantity of milky juice to flow, which, being of a highly acrid and enomous nature, is employed by the native Africans for poisoning their arrows and assagays. The juice of other allied species is used in various countries for intoxicating fish : a destructive mode of procuring the finny tribe practised in Ireland by poachers in the Shannon. The efficacy of E. helioscopia (War (wort) in removing warts is well known in England.
Among other valuable trees in this house may be noticed the
Bread-Fruit of the Pacific Isles (fig. 18.) (
Artocarpus incisa),— " That tree which in unfailing stores The staff of life spontaneous pours, And to those southern islands yields The produce of our labour'd fields;"—
the
Mango Tree (fig. 19-) (
Mangifera Indica) now annually yielding its rare and delicious fruit; the
Silk-Cotton Tree (
Bombax pentandra); the
Longan (
Nephelium Longari) ; the rapid-growing and thorny-stemmed
Ceiba (
Bombax Ceiba). Here are the
Coffee-Tree (
Coffea Arabica) (fig. 20.), seen in one place growing from the crevices of the bare tufa rock of Bermuda, as obligingly sent by His Excellency Governor Reid; the
Pepper-Plant of our tables (
Piper nigrum) (fig. 21.) ; and many other species of that genus; the
Tanghin (fig. 22.), or Poison-Tree of Madagascar (
Tanghinia veneniflua*), [* For a coloured representation of this tree, and many particulars of its use in the native the intelligent Missionaries, see " Botanical Magazine," tab. 2968, vol. iii. p. 275. tab. 110.] rendered infinitely more fatal than the Upas by the execrable laws of the Malagassy kingdom ; the Manihot (Jatropha Manihot) (fig. 23.), a most virulent poison, but whose roots (their deadly juices being removed by pressure or dissipated by heat) are made into the well-known
Cassava Bread of the West Indies, and into as great a variety of wholesome food as can be obtained from wheat; the
Patchouli or
Pucha-pat of India (
Pogostemon Patchouli), the most esteemed perfume of the present day; the
Cinnamon (
Laurus Cinnamomum) (fig. 24.), whose bark constitutes the valuable spice so named; and the
Bastard Cinnamon (
Laurus Cassia), of which the bark is said to be often substituted for that of true Cinnamon. Among the numerous kinds of Figs there will be found here, at the north entrance, young plants of the
Banyan (
Ficus Indica), one of the most celebrated trees in tropical India, for the immense stretch of its limbs (fig. 25.) and the singular mode provided by nature for their support: — "
Spreading so broad and long, that in the ground The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About their mother-tree, a pillar'd shade High overarch'd, and echoing walks between."— These roots or props occupy such a space of ground, that one, growing on the banks of the Nerbuddah, covers an almost incredible area, of which the circumference now remaining (for much has been swept away by the floods of that river) is nearly 2000 feet. The overhanging branches, which have not yet thrown down their props or supports, stretch over a much larger space : 320 main trunks may be counted, while the smaller ones exceed 3000, and each of them is continually sending forth branches and pendent roots to form other trunks, and become the parents of future progeny. The whole (according to Forbes's "
Oriental Memoirs," from which I quote) has been known to shelter 7000 men beneath its wide-spread shade. Our young plant of course can give no idea of this singular mode of growth ; indeed it is evident that a well-grown tree of this would alone fill the entire Palm-Stove of the Garden. — The
Pepul Tree (
Ficus religiosa), from the same country, is remarkable for the tail-like points to the extremities of the leaves; and these leaves abound so much in closely reticulated tenacious fibre, that the Chinese, by macerating them and removing the pulpy or parenchymatous substance, produce a kind of paper, which, when varnished, is capable of receiving the most beautiful drawings of birds, beasts, insects, flowers, &c. Such leaves, with the drawings, are commonly brought to this country from China, and are easily known to belong to this tree by their heart-shaped outline and the long tail-like point. Another kind of Fig in this collection must be here alluded to, for it illustrates a plant of Scripture,
Sycamine-Tree, or
Sycomore of Palestine (fig. 26.), the tree into which Zaccheus climbed (
Ficus Sycomorus): this is the true and original Sycomore, its name being derived from [greek script], a fig, and [greek script], a mulberry, meaning a fig, whose leaves resemble those the mulberry. " I was no prophet, neither a prophet's son, but," says Amos, " I was herdsman and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit from which, and from other passages in Scripture, it may be inferred that this tree was very great importance among the Jews, though its fruit is extremely inferior to that of the true Fig (
Ficus Carica), which two are the only eatable ones of 200 known species. The wood is said to be indestructible and is therefore used for Egyptian mummy-cases. A fourth species of Fig-tree, the
Ficus elastica, of which our plant is lofty, large dark green glossy foliage, affords in its milky juice the
Caoutchouc of the East Indies. A fine specimen of a Mexican Plant inhabits also this House, with leaves resembling those of a Plane-tree viz. the Hand-Plant of the Aborigines (
Cheirostemon platanoides) (fig. 27.), of which stamens, resembling the fingers of the human hand, probably recommended this curious plant as an object of worship. At the period of Humboldt's visit, the only tree then known in Mexico was held sacred.
But we must proceed; and as space not permit the mention of a tithe of interesting plants in this stove, we must content ourselves with saying that here may be examined, flowering at some period or other of the year, a great variety of tropical shrubs and trees; and here the feathery foliage of the
Tamarind (
Tamarindus officinalis), whose preserved fruit is an extensive article of commerce; the
Cotton (
Gossypium herbaceum) (fig. 29.) the seeds of which are surrounded by that beautiful filamentous substance, and whose flowers resemble those of an Hibiscus; Indigo (Indigofera Indica) (fig. 29.) the leaves yield the rich dye so called; the great flowers of the
Aristolochia Gigas, so large indeed, that the children in South America, according to Humboldt, wear them as hats, and their shape is that of a helmet; the latter, with many other climbing plants, entwines the pillars that support the roof on the staircase leading to the gallery. The well-known Humble-Plant is in this and other houses,
Mimosa pudica (often, though incorrectly, called the
Sensitive plant, which is
Mimosa sensitiva) :
"
Weak with nice sense the chaste Mimosa stands, From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands; Oft as light clouds o'erpass the summer glade, Alarm'd, she trembles at the moving shade, And feels, alive through all her tender form, The whisper'd murmurs of the gathering storm, Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching night, And hails with freshen'd charms the rising light."
The best way to exhibit the sensitive properties, so called, of the leaves, is to cut off suddenly and cautiously the tip of one of the terminal leaflets when all the other leaflets on that stalk will close, a pair at a time, from above downwards ; thence the impulse is continued to the adjoining stalks and to the leaflets from below upwards; and then the whole leaf will fall. In a rather shady spot near this staircase, seen to great advantage from the stair-case, are now placed the largest of our
Tree-ferns. Their size and beauty cannot fail to attract attention, for they are, perhaps without exception, the most graceful of vegetable forms, and the finest of their kind in Europe.
Lastly, we shall only mention in this stove the numerous climbers planted in the ground at the base of the pillars and of the stair-case, such as
Convolvuluses,
Passion-flowers,
Aristolochias,
Bauhinias,
Telfairia,
Poivrea, &c., all remarkable for the beauty of their foliage or flowers, and sometimes of both.
Impossible as it would be to record, in this brief Guide-book, the numerous donors of rare exotics to this Establishment, it is only our duty to state that, of the kinds from the East Indies, in the Palm as well as in other tropical Houses, by far the greater number were sent from the Honourable the E. I. Company's Botanic Garden at Calcutta, by the late distinguished superintendent, our valued friend Dr. Wallich. The Books of that garden, as proved by a Report now before us, printed at Calcutta in 1840, show that, in the five previous years alone, 9 Cases, with 229 plants* of the rarest and most valuable description, were transmitted here; and between 1840 and 1845, the period of that gentleman's retirement from his arduous duties, our own Books testify to the arrival of 13 Cases containing 275 plants !
* The same Report further states, that during the same period there were 2107 applicants for plants to the Calcutta Garden, from different parts of the world, who were supplied to the enormous extent of 189,932 individual plants. It is to be regretted that this document, printed at Calcutta, has not been more generally circulated, for it affords valuable information, relative to the introduction as well as distribution of a great number of rare and useful plants, during a small portion only of that gentleman's able directorship.
