rapid, that it appears to be due to the rooting part mechanically
dragging down the aerial. The branch meanwhile continues to grow
outwards, and being supplied by its new support, thickens beyond it,
whence the props always slant outwards from the ground towards the
circumference of the tree.

_Cycas_ trees abound in the gardens, and, though generally having
only one, or rarely two crowns, they have sometimes sixteen, and
their stems are everywhere covered with leafy buds, which are
developed on any check being given to the growth of the plant, as by
the operation of transplantation, which will cause as many as 300
buds to appear in the course of a few years, on a trunk eight
feet high.

During my stay at the gardens, Dr. Falconer received a box of living
plants packed in moss, and transported in a frozen state by one of
the ice ships from North America:* [The ice from these ships is sold
in the Calcutta market for a penny a pound, to great profit; it has
already proved an invaluable remedy in cases of inflammation and
fever, and has diminished mortality to a very appreciable extent.]
they left in November, and arriving in March, I was present at the
opening of the boxes, and saw 391 plants (the whole contents) taken
out in the most perfect state. They were chiefly fruit-trees, apples,
pears, peaches, currants, and gooseberries, with beautiful plants of
the Venus' fly-trap (_Dionaea muscipula_). More perfect success never
attended an experiment: the plants were in vigorous bud, and the day
after being released from their icy bonds, the leaves sprouted and
unfolded, and they were packed in Ward's cases for immediate
transport to the Himalaya mountains.