r which the Cape is
famous. When they arrive, they look like pieces of deadwood; but when
properly cared for, they rapidly make roots and branches, and produce
their interesting flowers in abundance.

Passing to the next tent, we enter that part devoted to the fruit. A
delicate aroma pervades the place. Directly before us is a large plant
of the Chinese loquah, loaded with fruit. This is yellow, and about
the size of a small plum. The plant is a great novelty; for although
hardy enough to be grown out of doors in this country, it produces its
fruit only in a hothouse. Associated with it are some large vines in
pots, with a profusion of fine bunches of grapes. Then there are
dishes of strawberries (_British Queens_), numerous pine-apples,
cherries, peaches, bananas (grown in this country), melons, &c.;
besides some very fine winter apples and pears, which have been
admirably preserved. Of the former, the winter-queen, old green
nonpareil, and golden harvey are conspicuous; of the latter, the
warden and Uvedale's St Germain are fine.

The most attractive feature of these shows appears to be the
orchideous or air-plants, as they are popularly known. A greater
number of persons are always collected round them than in any other
part of the tents; nor is this to be wondered at. Nothing can be more
singular in appearance or gorgeous in colouring. Their fragrance, too,
is so delightful. Description can convey but a faint idea of their
great beauty and diversity of character. They seem to mimic the insect
world in the shapes of their blossoms; nor are the resemblances
distant. Every one has heard of the butterfly-plant: there is one on
the stage now before us, and as the breeze gently waves its slender
stalks, each tipped with a vegetable butterfly, it becomes almost
difficult to imagine that we are not watching the movements of a real
insect flitting among the plants. Here is a spike of _Gongora
maculata_, bearing no faint resemblance to a quantity of brown insects
with expanded wings collected round the stem. Close to it are some
_Brassias_, mimicking with equal fidelity insects of a paler colour,
besides hundreds of others equally curious and beautiful. Some bear
their flowers in erect spikes, or loose heads; others have drooping
racemes a yard in length, as some of the _dendrobiums_. More have a
slender flower-stalk making a graceful curve, with the flowers placed
on the uppermost side, as _Pholaenopsis amablis_, which bea