PART ill.

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ARBORETUM.

that, where he foundthe plant, the groundwas covered with snowand ice; so that therecan be no doubt of itsbeing hardy in the cli-mate of London. It isof such remarkably slowgrowth in its native ha-bitats, that the inhabi-tants say it flowers onlyonce in 400 years. Fig.2402., reduced from Ba-ron Karwinski’s plate toa scale 1 in. to 12 ft.,shows the general ap-pearance of the full-grown plant, with itsnoble spike of flowers.Fig. 2401. shows theflowers of the naturalsize. Only seven plantswere introduced, one ofwhich was purchased bythe Duke of Devonshire,and the rest sold toMessrs. Loddiges. Pricefive guineas each.

F. gigantea V ent.,Bot. Mag., t. 2250., isan agave-like plant,with leaves 7 ft. long,and a flower-stem 30 ft.high; a native of SouthAmerica: introduced in1690. It flowered in1821, at the Earl ofPowis’s seat at Wallcot,Shropshire.

Littas' a gemmifloraBrig.; Aga've gemmi-fldra Ker; BonaparteaJuncea Haw., Hort.Journ. Roy. Inst., iii.t. 1.; and our Jig. 2403.;is a native of Peru, in-troduced in 1800; and,though commonly keptin the green-house, it isprobably as hardy assome kinds of Yucca.The plant of which ourfigure is a portrait, witha single flower of thenatural size, flowered inthe conservatory ofKnight’s Exotic Nur-sery, King’s Road, in1826. The flower-stemfirst appeared about the

2402