Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/215

and elegant specimen plants, or to bring along through the season a constant succession of flowers, was not and is not possible. In them, however, are to be seen choice or picturesque specimens of a variety of plants best adapted to the conditions that they offer, and of late vears they have been supplemented by a range of modern houses, which, though small, is sufficiently large for the growth of many plants that are not seen outside of botanical establishments, as well as of those that possess commercial value because of their ready growth and abundant production of flowers. Among the collections of tender plants that are especially worthy of mention are the Agaves. cacti and agaves, which, the special subjects of much of the work of Engelmann, have long been well represented in the living collections, and have been added to with the passage of time until there are today few collections of these groups which surpass or even approach them in size or importance. One house is devoted to representatives of the Bromeliaceae, of which something over 100 species are cultivated, and to which others are being added at short intervals. One tower is occupied with tender yuccas, which, planted in the ground, are beginning to assume a size ami character impossible in the open air in a latitude so far north as that of St. Louis, or in tubbed specimens. In one house are brought together the sago plants, Cycadaceae, of which a fairly good collection is owned by the garden, and added to with every opportunity. In another, are planted out tree-ferns. In others, orchids, already numbering some 600 forms, aroids, in considerable variety, carnivorous plants, acacias and plants of similar foliage, and other groups of particular decorative, economic or biological interest, are displayed, and the provision this season of several new houses for the propagation of plants and for. growing those that are needed for