pérides, gardien des pommes d’or; Nicolas Monard, examinant 
son fruit a la loupe, crut voir sous l’enveloppe l'image du mon- 
stre fabuleux; et les botanistes modernes, jugeant le colosse 
par l'embryon, l’ont classé dans la famille des Asperges.” 
India is given, as well as the Canaries, by most botanical 
writers, as the native country of the Dragon’s-blood, but Dr. 
Roxburgh does not include it in his ‘ Flora Indica,’ nor does 
Dr. Wallich consider it a native; and who can gainsay such 
authorities? The tree derives its name from a resinous exuda- 
tion, known in commerce as “ Dragon’s-blood,” and which 
appears to have formed a considerable branch of exportation in 
the early times of the conquest of these isles, but which has 
never wholly fallen into disuse. Masses of this resin, which 
have been found in the sepulchral caves of the Guanches, would 
lead to the suspicion that the substance was employed for em- 
balming their dead. 
- Dzscr. A description of the ¢runé: of this tree, as seen in our 
own stoves or greenhouses, even when, as at Kew, they have 
attained a height of twenty-three feet, with the entirely unbranched 
stem scarred by the transverse lines or scars of the fallen leaves, 
with a single tuft of leaves at the top, very much resembling a 
Yucca, would give no idea of the appearance the tree puts on in 
its native isles in its maturer age. The state just mentioned is 
considered by M. Berthelot as the “ first age ” or infancy, which 
lasts, in their native country, from twenty-five to thirty years. 
He speaks of two other periods, “of maturity or of reproduc- 
tion ;” and thirdly, the aye or period of decay: “1a durée des 
ces deux ages est incalculable.” At the second age, the trans- 
verse cicatrices disappear, and the trunk is covered by layers 
which adhere together and increase gradually by the formation 
of new ones: hence the trunk sensibly increases in thickness, 
owing to the rapid formation of branches, and then commences 
the flowering period. “Parvenus a cette époque de leur per- 
fection, les Dragoniers continuent a croitre et semblent acquérir 
chaque année une vigueur nouvelle. Par l’effet de leur robuste 
organisation ils résistent aux vents les plus impétueux, bravent 
sur un sol volcanisé les rayons d’un soleil brilant et toutes les 
intempéries de l’atmosphére. C’est ainsi que, forts des avan- 
tages que la nature leur a prodigué, ils poursuivent lentement 
la longue carriére de leur existence.” In the age or period of 
decay, aerial roots appear, “les drageons parasites,” and glan- 
dular excrescences in the interior of the trunk as large as Cocoa- 
nuts, described and figured by Berthelot (/. ¢. p. 785. t. 39). — 
‘The /eaves attain a length of three feet and more, and are 
very glaucous, coriaceous, firm, straight, narrow sword-shaped 
or linear, pungently acuminated, broad, somewhat sheathing 
