CHAPTER VIII.

IN THE REALM OF RARE FLOWERS AND PLANTS.

A ramble among rare and aristocratic plants — More than half a million dollars' worth from Greenland's icy
mountain to India's coral strand — North and South America, Mexico, Cuba, Europe, Central America,
China, Japan, Australia, and the Hawaiian and South Sea Islands represented — Enchantresses from the
Amazon and the Nile — Modest inhabitants from the Alps, the Appenines, the Sierra Nevada, and the
Mountains of the Moon — Wonderful ferns and palms from New South Wales and the Cape of Good Hope
— Tens of thousands of miscellaneous herbaceous flowers and flowering shrubs — More than a half-million
orchids, roses, carnations, lilies, pansies, cannas, fuschias and petunias — Magnificent exhibits by Australia,
Canada, Trinidad, New York, Pennsylvania, Germany, Belgium, Mexico and Japan — Australian tree ferns
six hundred years old — Staghorn and bird's nest ferns of wonderful size and beauty — Splendid collections
of the cereus gigantea — Great display of rhododendrons — Splendid collections of ferns and palms from
Toronto conservatories — Dwarf trees in the Japanese garden over a hundred years old — Pitcher & Manda's
wonderful display of seven thousand costly plants — Enormous bamboos from Trinidad — Two century
plants in bloom- -The atmosphere of the Horticultural Building freighted with aromatic sweets . . 295

12 CONTENTS.