CACTUS OR SUCCULENT HOUSE 127 



so as to bear some resemblance to a bishop's mitre ; A. 

 saponaria is used by the negroes for soap.* 



These True Aloes are all Liliaceous plants, and must not 

 be confounded with the American Aloes, which belong to 

 the Narcissus Order or Amaryllidaceae. 



One of the few remarkable things a visitor t took notice 

 of in the Garden in 1695 was "Y e Aloes plant w ch is like a 

 great flag in shape, leaves and Coullour, and grows in the 

 fform of an open Hartichoake and towards the bottom of each 

 Leafe its very broad and thick, In w ch there are hollows or 

 receptacles for y e Aloes." 



In 1846 an American Aloe (Agave, Furcraea cubensis), grown 

 in the stove, attracted much interest by suddenly pushing 

 forth a splendid panicle of flowers, which rose in a week to 

 the height of 24 ft. The earliest blossoms expanded on 

 October i, and by October 7 the flowering stem had 

 produced 28 principal branches, on which, and on the sub- 

 ordinate ones, were no less than 1,388 flowers and pseudo- 

 bulbs. A multitude of the latter were interspersed amongst 

 the blossoms as a provision for the future propagation of 

 the plant, which died exhausted by the great effort of pro- 

 ducing a vast assemblage of flowers in so rapid a manner. 

 A drawing by J. H. Russell hangs in the Museum. The 

 last specimen flowered in 1893. 



In more recent years the flowering of large Aloes has not 

 been a phenomenon of such rare occurrence in fact, by 

 attention to their cultivation, healthy plants can be induced 



* The collection also includes : 



Aloe albo-cincta Gasteria vroomii 



aristata Haworthia reinwardtii 



greenii Kalanchoe flammea 



percrassa glaucescens 



somaliensis kirkii 



supralaevis somaliensis 



Gasteria croucheri thyrsifolia 



f Celia Fiennes. 



