Although various instances are on record of this plant having blossom- 
ed when confined in a pot or tub, and sheltered from the severity of our 
climate, yet the occurrence is so rare, as to excite a great deal of inter- 
est in the neighbourhood where such an event takes place; and I know 
not whether the variegated-leaved variety, which is not uncommon in 
collections, blossoms with equal readiness; not having myself heard of 
the flowering of that kind, till that which is here represented threw up 
its flowering stem in the summer of 1836, at Aiken Head, the seat of 
Mrs. Gorpon, where, the garden is under the management of Mr, 
Lampsig, In this instance, the whole height of the flower-stalk, was 
only the half of that of Mr. Yares: and the blossoms were few indeed 
in comparison; yet they came to great perfection, and the plant made 
a very noble appearance. 
But the great size and strange form of this plant, and the rarity of its 
blossoming in our collections, are not the only circumstances which 
recommend the American Aloe to attention. It yields a drink, and a 
fibre of such extensive use in the New World, that it is reckoned, next 
to the Maize and the Potato, the most valuable of all the products which 
nature has lavished on the mountain-population of zequinoctial America: 
and no where perhaps is it held in greater esteem than Mexico, according 
to M. de Humpotprt, from whose “ Essai politique sur la Royaume de la 
Nouvelle Espagne,” I extract the following interesting particulars, bear- 
ing on this subject. : " ELL oe AE 
“« Scarcely,’’ says this distinguished Philosopher, § does there exist a 
tribe of savages in the world, who are not acquainted with the art of pre- 
paring some kind of vegetable drink. The wretched hordes which wan- 
der in the forests of Guiana, extract from the fruits of different Palms, 
a beverage, which is as palatable as the European orgeat. The inhabit- 
ants of Easter Island, confined to a mass of barren, springless rocks, 
mingle the expressed juice of the Sugar Cane with the briny water of the 
sea. Most civilized nations derive their drink from the same plants as 
afford them food, and whose roots and seeds contain the saccharine prin- 
ciple mingled with the farinaceous.. In Southern and Eastern Asia this 
is Rice ; in Africa and Australia the roots of Ferns, and of some Arums ; 
while in the North of Europe, the Cerealia afford both bread and fer- 
mented liquors. Few are the instances of certain plants being cultivated 
solely with a view to extract beverages from 'them. Vineyards only 
exist west of the Indus; in the Old World, and in the golden age of 
Greece, the culture of the Grape was confined to the countries lying 
between the Oxus and the Euphrates, in Asia Minor, and in Western 
Europe. In other parts of the world, nature certainly produces several 
species of Wild Vine; but no where has man attempted to collect them 
around them, and improve their quality by cultivation. ; 
“The New Continent presents’ the instance of a people who derived 
their drinks not only’ fromthe farinaceous and sugary substance of 
Maize, Manioc, and Bananas, or \from the pulp of some. species of 
Mimosa, but Pb, cultivated, a plant af the Pine Angle fomily = » 
express purpose of converting its juice into a spirituous liquor. fn the 
vast plate 4a the interior of Meise, there are large tracts of country 
where the eye discerns nothing but fields planted with the Pittes or 
Maguay (Acave Americana). This plant, with its leathery and 
thorny leaves, and which, with the Cactus: Opuntia, has become 
