At the heart of the Royal Botanic Gardens, the glass and iron Palm House was designed by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner along purely functional lines (110m in length, 3m high in the wings and 6m in the centre). Built between 1844 and 1848, it houses practical tropical species (coffee, cocoa) and more ornamental varieties. The lizards were a gift from Customs, having been illegally smuggled into the country.