orange-coloured fruits, in the gardens of that noble man- 
sion. My avocations prevented me at the time from taking 
so long a journey, which I should otherwise most gladly 
have done. But, fortunately, at that very period, my 
valued friend, the Rev. R. T. Lowes, sent me a beautiful 
drawing of a plant which had flowered in Madeira, together 
with some spadices in spirits. From these, the accom- 
panying engravings have been made. Mr. Lowe writes me 
respecting this Madeira plant, “ It grows in front of the 
Quinta do Valle, or Valle Villa, a spot whose elevation is 
about three hundred feet above the level of the sea. It has 
produced fruit, (abortive like that sent,) every alternate year 
for a long time till the very last ; but the gentleman who 
resided in the house haying left the island last summer, the 
plant was neglected ; and this year it has not, as usual, put 
out a fresh crown of leaves. The usual treatment has been, 
to cut off the whole of the leaves as soon as the fruit of 
the year had nearly perished; that is, towards January or 
February : and then, towards the spring in May or June, it 
never failed to put forth anew crown of leaves, which, about 
the middle of summer, attained their full size. These con- 
tinued through the winter, and the fruit began to develop 
itself in their centre, towards June or July of the following 
‘year, arriving at its full size in September. Last winter, 
the foliage of the summer of 1827 was not cut off, as I said, 
after the fruit had perished, and is at this moment on the 
plant. About last March, there seemed to be an effort to 
shoot out fresh leaves, by the protrusion of a conical groupe 
of sharp-pointed processes from the centre of the withered 
spadices and fruit, but nothing more has yet appeared. The 
fruit acquires its fine orange-colour very early, and is about 
the size of a horse-bean. I have just been to take the follow- 
ing measurements. Height of trunk (to the base of decayed 
remains of last summer’s fruit,) three feet nine inches. Girth 
at the ground, three feet three inches ; at middle and at 
top, three feet four inches. It appears to the eye, however, 
a good deal thicker upwards. There are twenty-four leaves, 
(the crown is not quite perfect, as you will see im the 
figure,) which are from three feet seven inches to three 
feet ten inches long, still exhibiting no signs of decay ; and 
there is no appearance of fresh ones, except the cone of pro- 
_ €esses above mentioned. Counting the alternate remains 
_ Of leaf-stalks and spadices, (distinet traces of the last occur 
at the very lowest ring above the surface of the ground) the 
Plant is forty-five to fifty years old. It has occupied its 
| present 
