state-supported tropical garden occupying a 65-hectare (160-acre) site in Caracas, Venez. The garden has excellent collections of palms, cacti, aroids, bromeliads, pandanuses, and other groups of tropical plants of considerable botanical interest; also important is a large, untouched tract of the original mountainside vegetation. The herbarium maintained by the research centre comprises about 100,000 reference specimens, many of which represent plants native to Venezuela and its neighbouring countries.