Agaves ; but it was not till seventy years after its dis- 
covery that the present even more gigantic species was 
made known by Mr. Hill, Government Botanist of Queens- 
land, who found it on elevated rocks between Moreton 
Bay and Darling Downs. From the specimens then 
brought, which flowered in the Queensland Botanical 
Gardens in 1870, and were exhibited at the Intercolonial 
Exhibition in Sydney, together with a drawing made by 
Miss Scott, the description of D. Palmeri by Mr. Bentham, 
in the “ Flora Australiensis,” was taken. This description, 
though accurate, is necessarily incomplete; it takes no 
notice of the ribbing of the leaf, nor of their singular 
tubular brown tips, the latter a character common to both 
species, though exaggerated in this; nor of the fact that 
the ovules and seeds, though inserted in two series, are SO 
superposed as to form one row in each cell; in which 
respect the genus differs from all others of the tribe Agavew 
to which it belongs, and of which tribe it is the sole extra 
American representative. 
Though, as above stated, Doryanthes Palmeri was not 
known as a distinct species till 1870, it must have been 
discovered a considerable time before that date, for the 
plant which is here figured has been in the Royal Gardens 
for upwards of sixteen years, under the name of D. excelsa. 
As a species D. Palmeri differs from D. excelsa in its 
much larger size, broader, longer, more ribbed leaves, 
thyrsoid inflorescence, short and coloured bracts, and much 
shorter not recurved perianth-segments, which are a pale 
red within, and in the short anthers : it commenced flowering 
in the Succulent House at Kew in 1881, and was trans- 
ferred thence to the South Octagon of the Temperate House, 
where it commenced to open its flowers in March, and 
continued in beauty for two months, finally ripening its 
seeds in October. 
The name Palmeri records the services to Horticulture 
of A. H. Palmer, Esq., formerly Colonial Secretary of 
Queensland. 
Duscr. Roots fibrous. 
and recurved, ensiform, si 
six inches broad, slightly 
six inches long. Stem 
Leaves very numerous, spreading 
x to eight feet long and four to 
ribbed, tip brown tubular, four to 
or scape eight to ten feet high, 
