COLENSO. — Oil Tu'o Peculiar South American Plants. 323 



At the same time I should state that nearly all that I have 

 been able to collect during several years were obtained from 

 almost the same localities repeatedly gleaned, comprised 

 within a wooded area of, say, twenty miles, between Norsewood 

 and Tahoraiti. My own belief, founded on practical experi- 

 ence, is that the number of Fungi will be yet greatly increased 

 in years to come, while at the same time, I fear, many species 

 (besides numerous others, species nova, of the more graceful 

 and symmetrical cryptogamic orders — Musci, Hcpaticce, and 

 Lichencs) \m\\\ become irrecoverably lost to science through 

 the persistent clearing and destroying of the virgin forests, 

 their peculiar habitats. 



Art. XXXV. — Notes, Bemarks, and Reminiscences of Two 

 Peculiar Introduced and Naturalised South American 

 Plants. 



By W. CoLENso, F.R.S., F.L.S. (Lond.), kc. 



[Read hefore the Haiolce's Bay Philosophical Institute, 10th July, 1893.] 



Extremes in Nature equal good produce ; 

 Extremes in man concur to general use. 



Pope : Moral Essays. 

 —find 

 A tale in everything. 



Wordsworth : Simon Lee. 



1. The Amekican Aloe = Agave americana, Linn. 

 In passing lately through the Town of Waipawa, my attention 

 was drawn towards an American aloe that had flowered during 

 the past summer in a garden there ; the tall withered flowering- 

 stem was still standing erect, and the parent plant had its 

 usual large number of young ones (suckers, offshoots) nestling 

 around it ; but these, amounting to nearly twenty, presented 

 the uncommon and peculiar appearance of all bearing flower- 

 ing-stems about 3ft. high, each having many flowers (several 

 dozen) similar in size, colour, disposition, and show to those 

 of the parent plant. As I had never before noticed this 

 phenomenon, and had frequently seen and closely watched 

 several specimens of these plants in flower, in my own gardens 

 and in those of others, both at the warmer climate of the 

 north (Bay of Islands) and here in Napier, I have deemed 

 this event worthy of recording. And as the real value of this 

 huge and striking plant is, very likely, but little known — 

 especially to our rising generation — perhaps, also, to some of 

 my audience, who may have seen it after flowering, here in 

 Napier, chopped up and cast out and carted away, a few 

 words concerning its uses may not be out of place. 



