170 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



The sago plant was first introduced to us, 

 about the year 17o8, by Richard Warner, 

 Esq. of Woodford in Essex. This gentle- 

 man received a plant from Captain Hutchin- 

 son, whose ship being attacked by the 

 French, the head of the plant was shot off, 

 but the stem being preserved, produced se- 

 veral heads, which being taken off, produced 

 as many plants ; one of which, in all proba- 

 bility, was cultivated at Farnham Castle, 

 Surrey, where it produced fruit under the 

 management of the Bishop of Winchester's 

 gardener. His Lordship, wishing that an 

 account of it might be laid before the Lin- 

 nean Society, induced Dr. J. E. Smith and 

 Mr. Sowerby to go to Farnham to make the 

 requisite observations ; and as it appears to 

 be the only plant of the kind that has yet 

 fruited in England, we shall give the account 

 as read to the Society, November 3, 1801. 

 Dr. Smith says, " We found the fruit then 

 ripe, and exhibiting a most magnificent spec- 

 tacle. The plant was much larger than any 

 I had seen of the same species, and seems to 

 be one of the oldest in England : we learn 

 from the Hortus Kewensis, that this Cycus 

 has been about forty years in our collections. 



"It is not known that the Farnham plant 



