308 Miscellaneous, 



The familiar fable of the " plant that only flowers once in a hun- 

 dred years" has originated, no doubt, from the fact that some of the 

 specimens that have produced flowers in England may have seen the 

 years of a century, while many die without flowering before they 

 attain that age ; but this is quite the exception to the natural habit 

 of the plant, which in its native country (South America) sometimes 

 flowers at the age of eight, or even five years, the average being 

 about ten. Loudon mentions a specimen that flowered in Devonshire 

 at the age of twenty years, and another in Cornwall fifty-six years 

 old : both of these were grown in the open air ; and he thinks that 

 the Agave, if grown under the same treatment as a Pine-apple, would 

 no doubt flower as soon, or in about four or five years. I have known 

 some plants of American Aloe, when well cultivated, increase more 

 in two years than other neglected or starved individuals in ten. Not 

 only Aloes, but many other plants, especially succulents, when ex- 

 posed to cold and allowed very little nourishment, remain for years 

 in an almost stationary position with regard to growth, although 

 alive. The C'hinese take advantage of this fact in producing their 

 pigmy trees. 



In Mexico, Spain, Sicily, and various parts of India, the Agave is 

 largely cultivated, not so much as an ornament as for its valuable 

 commercial products. ' Pulque,' the national beverage of the native 

 Mexicans, is prepared from the saji, which flows in great abundance 

 from the flower-stem, which is cut off for this purpose as soon as it 

 appears, from among the leaves, the supply being about seven or 

 eight quarts per day. The ligneous fibre called * Pita'-thread is also 

 very valuable, especially for ropes and cordage, and exceedingly 

 strong. Roofs of houses are often covered with the leaves, in place 

 of tiles or thatch. The plants set in rows make excellent and im- 

 penetrable fences ; and in Jamaica the expressed juice of the leaves, 

 when evaporated, has served as a substitute for soap. 



In the year 1839, a specimen of Agave Americana flowered in 

 these Gardens, being one of three plants the property of a gentleman 

 at Ilighgate, who stated that they had been in the possession of his 

 family for seventy-five years, and also that the plants were twenty or 

 twenty-five years old when they first obtained them. In 1841 the 

 Society purchased the two remaining plants, they being about the 

 same size as the one that flowered : one of these threw up a flower- 

 spike in June 1845, in a greenhouse ; and now, thirteen years later, 

 the last remaining of these old friends is finishing its long and dreary 

 life, at the age of 115 or 120 years. It has scarcely increased in size 

 for the last ten years, and has probably been waiting since 1848 for 

 some slight alteration in its treatment to induce it to flower. Early 

 in May the plant was removed from the conservatory to a sheltered 

 nook in the open garden, and permitted to enjoy the influence of siui- 

 shine and genial showers; on the I'ith of June the flower-spike first 

 made its appearance, the average growth for a few weeks being about 

 3 inches in 24 hours, the daily register varying from 1 to 10 inches, 

 according to the temperature and state of the weather ; the rate of 

 increase gradually became less till the 28th of August, when the up- 



