The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian CourtLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Palace and Park: Its Natural History, and Its Portrait Gallery, Together with a Description of the Pompeian Court
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Crystal Palace (Sydenham, London, England)
We now arrive at Borders No. 7 and 9, opposite the Assyrian Court. In
this position is arranged a selection of tropical fruit plants, and of
those bearing articles of food. It will not be necessary to do much more
than enumerate most of these, as their produce is so well known, and
forms the daily or occasional food of most. At this end of the Border
will be found the Tamarind-tree, the Pepper-plant, the Sea-side Grape,
from the West Indies, the Coffee-tree, the Chili-Capsicum, the fruit of
which makes a delicious pickle, the Jujube, the Assam Tea-plant, so
extensively cultivated by the East India Company, the Cow-tree of the
Caraccas, and, advancing up the front of the Border, two kinds of
Ginger, the common and a spurious kind, the Rose-apple of the East
Indies, the Avocado Pear, and the Peruvian Custard-apple, at the back of
which is the Castor-oil plant, the Jack-tree, and the Malabar Nut. We
continue the collection with the Star-apple of the West Indies, the
Madagascar Nutmeg, the Allspice, and the Cassia Bark. We here meet a
fine group of fruiting Bananas, beyond which we shall notice with
interest the Indian Mimusops, and the plant from which our common Black
Pepper is derived (_Piper nigrum_). The _Dimocarpus Longan_, and the
Chinese Litchi-Fruit tree, are near, as well as a most interesting plant
called the Ordeal-tree, from Madagascar. The fruit is a sort of bean,
and deadly poisonous. When the priests in Madagascar wish to rid
themselves of a state enemy, or to remove a rich man for the sake of his
goods, recourse is had to some pretence, and an ordeal is instituted
which consists in eating the fruit of this tree, harmless of course to
the innocent, but to the guilty, poisonous. The crafty priests carry out
their views by substituting an innocuous berry similar in appearance,
excepting where they wish the pretended guilt to manifest itself with
death.
The arrangement of the corresponding Border, No. 9, is very similar to
that which we now quit, but we shall find here in addition, the
Cinnamon-tree, the Peruvian Bark, the Bohea Tea-tree, the leaves of
which we daily consume as plain black tea, another kind of Allspice
(_Myrtus pimenta longifolia_), the Guava of West India, a most delicious
and well-known fruit, the Sapodilla Plum, and the Chinese Paper Plant.
In the small Border near the aviary, which terminates the series on this
side, is an interesting specimen called the Looking Glass Plant, from
the silvery appearance of the underside of the leaf. Here also is a
magnificent example of the Black Bamboo, the canes of which are used for
a great variety of useful purposes, and for ornament as well. The rapid
growth of this plant is astounding, the shoots of the present specimen
having often increased in height at the rate of more than 12 inches
daily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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