at the base and contracted above the sheath. They vary much 
im breadth, from one to two inches, and Kunth enumerates four 
varieties depending on peculiarities of the foliage. Panicles 
from the leafy extremities of the branches, themselves leafy with 
foliaceous éracts: ultimate bracts minute. Flowers pedicelled, 
i clusters or fascicles, five or six from one point, easily caducous, 
if not fruit-bearing, owing to a joint near the middle of the 
pedicel, and the lower portion or articulation is swollen at the top 
and a little cup-shaped. Sepa/s pale yellowish or greenish white, 
oblong, obtuse, bearing the stamens at the base. Anthers oblong, 
two-celled. Ovary oval, glabrous, three-celled: ced/s with one 
ovule. Style as long as the ovary. Stigma three-lobed. Fruit 
a depressed-globose, yellow-green Jerry, with very thin pulp, 
one, two, or rarely three seeds coming to maturity. Seeds 
globose, pale brown. W. J. 7. 
Cur. This plant is recorded to have been introduced into 
this country before 1640, and examples of it have been known 
to attain a considerable height and age, but we are not aware of 
its ever having produced flowers except under the circumstances 
stated above. In Botanic Gardens this plant is generally placed 
in a house with Aloes, Agaves, and other succulent plants that 
' thrive in a dry atmosphere and require very little water. For 
many years several specimens were kept in the old dry stove in 
the Royal Gardens, growing in large garden-pots. Their thick 
roots and the mould in the pots formed a compact ball, almost im- 
pervious to water, which at all times was but sparingly given them : 
under this treatment the plants grew and increased in height. 
In 1842, one of them, becoming too tall, was removed into a 
loftier house, adapted for the growth of tropical plants requiring 
a warm and moist air, and was shifted into a small tub. At 
that time it measured seventeen feet nine inches from the surface 
of the soil in the tub to the base of the lowest whorl of leaves ; 
it is now twenty-three feet in height, having grown five feet four 
inches in eight years, being at the rate of eight inches annually : 
this, according to our recollection of the plant thirty years ago, 
must be at least double its rate of growth when under the dry 
system of treatment. A modification of the latter, however, we 
believe to be more in accordance with the circumstances of the 
plant in its native locality. The specimen figured, Dr. Mac- 
kay informs us, was raised from seed in 1810, and at the 
time it was cut down (about three years ago) it measured — 
eighteen feet in height: this gives a growth of about five inches 
annually. From the above statements, it appears that this plant 
grows slowly or rapidly according to the degree of heat and 
moisture it receives ; but when cultivated in a moist atmosphere, 
little or no water should be given to the roots. With respect to 
