CHAP. CXV1I.

halk-hakdy .monocoxyledo'ne*.

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middle of August; and, for about sixweeks, it made the rapid growth'of about 4 in. every 24 hours. Afterthis, its growth gradually becameslower, till, on the Uth of No-vember, the spike was 14 ft. high, asshown in the figure, and bearing 84(iflowers in various stages of progress.The flowers were green without, andof a greenish yellow within. A spe-cimen in the conservatory of the geo- 'graphical establishment of Van derMaelen at Brussels flowered in De-cember, 1837. The height of theflower-stem was 30 ft., and it wasfurnished with from 1200 to 1300flowers. The same plant had floweredsome years previously, so that thissecond flower-stem in all probabilityproceeded from a sucker. ( L’K'chodu Monde Savant, Dec. 29., 1837.)The plant has ripened seeds freelyin the conservatory of M. Soulange-Bodin, with whom it flowered in1823, and who had, in the followingyear, 1000 plants raised from its seeds.

Agave americdna, the AmericanAloe, a native of the tropical part ofSouth America, on mountains 900 ft.above the level of the sea. “ Thence,”says Sir W. J. Hooker, “ it has beenintroduced into the warmer parts ofthe old world, where fences are madeof it, and a fermented liquor calledpulque; and fibres for thread, and asubstance analogous to soap, havealso been extracted. It was, by thelate Mr. Yates, planted in his gardenat Saltcombe Bay, in Devonshire,in 1804, when only 3 years old, andbut 6 in. high. It was placed in theopen air, without any protection, savewhat was afforded by the neighbour-ing hills. In the year 1820, it hadattained a height of 11 ft., and covereda space of ground the diameter ofwhich was 16 ft., when it threwup a flower-stem, which grew for 6weeks at the rate of 3 in. a day, andin September measured 27 ft. inheight, its branches being loaded with16,000 blossoms ; thus contradictingthe generally received opinion, thatthe American aloe flowers only oncein 100 years.” ( M‘Culloch’s Statis-tics of the British Empire, i. p. 126 .)

Phormitmi thiax, the New Zea-land Flax, is also quite hardy bothin the south of England and Ireland,and is technically a shrub. 8 a

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