CoLENSO. — On Two Peculiar South American Plants. 325 



syphilitic, and is even brought to Europe mixed with sarsa- 

 parilla. It is also stated by Long, in his " History of Jamaica," 

 that the expressed juice of the leaves evaporated is useful as a 

 substitute for soap ; and Lindley says, " Agave saponaria is a 

 powerful detergent : its roots are employed in Mexico as a 

 substitute for soap," It was early introduced into Jamaica, 

 Antigua, Domiiiica, and Cuba, and also into the countries 

 bordering on the Mediterranean, where it is become very 

 common . 



I have known its thick fleshy juicy leaves to be success- 

 fully used for rheumatism, particularly lumbago : their rind 

 taken off, and the large fresh wet slab rubbed on the parts 

 affected. It seemed to possess a similar power on the 

 skin to that of hartshorn or turpentine liniments. In one 

 instance the fresh leaf was used (as above) with beneficial 

 effects in lumbago here in my own house, by my man- 

 servant. 



I remember, several years ago, the flowering of a plant in 

 the Botanic Gardens at Kew caused some excitement, from 

 the gardeners' fable respecting it — that " it flowered only once 

 in a hundred years;" and from it being the first that had 

 flowered in England ; and, as it was under glass, a propor- 

 tionately high turret had to be built up for its tall flowering- 

 stem, which grew rapidly, and caused the turret to be several 

 times enlarged to keep pace with it. 



The plant, however, flourished well in the open air in the 

 West of England, where I have seen several. I remember 

 two old and very large plants in my maternal grandfather's 

 gardens in Penzance (a.d. 1814-1819), but they had not 

 flowered when I last saw them, and wei-e shortly after 

 dug up and destroyed, the ground being required for other 

 purposes. 



It was an interesting and unique sight to observe on a 

 calm summer's evening, in my garden in the Bay of Islands, 

 the large moths (ProtojJarce distans) in great numbers flying 

 around the flowers of the Agave amcricana, extracting their 

 honey with their long probosces, as, the flowers being situated 

 high up on their tall pole-like flowering-stem, the operations 

 of the moths were seen to advantage against the clear sky ; 

 the plant itself also being an exotic, and its large flowers 

 never before known to them, made it the more interesting. 

 Moreover, what further served to increase the pleasure of 

 observing this winged army of big moths diligently at work 

 was their peculiar manner of carrying it on, never, like bees, 

 and other smaller Lcpidoiotera, lighting on a flower, but while 

 on the wing rapidly uncoiling their slender probosces, and 

 thrusting them deep into the Agave flowers, their wings at the 

 same time quickly vibrating and causing a low humming 



