187 



But of all productions of the vegetable kind, there 

 ! none more remarkable than theAloe. It grows ex. 

 ceeding slowly : but the slowness of its growth is af- 

 terwards compensated by the bulk to which it arrives-, 

 the velocity with which it shoots, and the prodigious 

 number of llowers it produces, which ordinarily amount 

 to several thousands. It usually takes up three months, 

 May, June, arid July, from the first budding of the 

 stem to the finishing of the flowers. There are, how- 

 ever, exceptions to this rule. The aloe in the garden 

 of Cardinal Farncse, at Rome, shot up in the space of 

 one month, to the height of twenty-three feet. Another 

 at Madrid grew ten feet in one night, and twenty-five 

 more in the night following. 



The progress of the Venetian aloe t in the garden of 

 Signior Papatava, was as follows: it began to shoot 

 its stem, on the 20th of May, which by the 19th of 

 June, was risen four Paduan feet and an inch, Ou 

 the 24th it had gained ten inches more, and on the 

 29th eight more, on which day it began to emit 

 branches. On the 6th of July it had gained one foot 

 one inch ; on the 17th one foot eight inches more ; on 

 the 7th of August, one foot and a half. From that 

 day to the 30th, it grew very slowly, but continued 

 emitting branches and flowers. The trunk was at the 

 bottom a foot thick; the branches were twenty-three 

 in number. On the top of each was a knot or col- 

 lection of flowers i on each of the first branches there 

 were a hundred and twelve ; on others a hundred and 

 ten, and on others a hundred. They yielded little smell.; 

 but what was of it was agreeable. 



When the tree has once flowered^ it quickly dies, 

 being quite exhausted by so copious a birth. They 

 seldom flower till they are of a considerable age, when 

 they are of a large size and a great height. As 

 soon as the flower stem begins to shoot from tiie 

 middle of the plant, it draws all the nourishment from 

 the leaves, so that as that advances, these decay. And 

 when the flowers are fully blown, scarce any of the 

 /eaves remain alive. But whenever this happens, the 



